Gun Digest Special Shooter's Guide To Reloading ( 2014, Philip P. Massaro)

GunDigest

SHOOTER’S GUIDEto

GunDigest

SHOOTER’S GUIDE*

RELOADING

PHILIP P. MASSARO

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DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the men and women who have given life and limb
in the defense of the United States of America, and thereby given us all the
opportunity to enjoy the use of our firearms as a free people. It is a debt that
cannot be repaid, and I personally wish to express my sincere gratitude to them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip P. Massaro is the President of Massaro Ballistic Laboratories, LLC, a custom
ammunition company comfortably nestled in between the Hudson River and Catskill
Mountains of upstate New York. He has been handloading ammunition for more than 20
years and has created a wide range of pistol and rifle ammunition from the lightest plink-
ing loads through the heaviest-hitting cartridges designed for animals that are measured
in tons. Having been taught how to shoot as a very young man, he soon developed a love
for firearms and their paraphernalia. He is a veteran of three African safaris and dozens of
North American hunts, and enjoys quality time spent afield in the quiet, wild places. He is
a Licensed Professional Land Surveyor by trade, a musician by choice, and usually reeks
of Hoppes No. 9.

4 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As with any book that pertains to a specific field, there are a multitude of influences that
gives an author the initiative to take on the task in the first place. Reloading is no different.

I’d first like to pay homage to those who gave birth to the industry as we know it.
Names like Bruce Hodgdon, Vernon Speer, Joyce Hornady, John Nosier, Bill Hober, and
too many more to name have provided us with the building blocks to make great ammuni¬
tion. Then there are those who have built the tools we use during every reloading session.
The great folks at RCBS, Redding, Hornady, Lyman, Lee, Forster, Dillon, et al, make our
job of creating good ammunition not only possible, but much easier, as time goes on.

Then there’s the writing end of things. Honestly, I am a reloader who writes, not a
writer who reloads. There are many authors who have mesmerized me for countless hours
with their stories, be it about hunting or reloading. Roosevelt, Hemingway, Ruark, Cap-
stick, and so many others are certainly among those who’ve intrigued me with their talk of
hunting adventure and firearms facts. Of them all, there is one writer who’s held my atten¬
tion for decades, and I’ve been fortunate enough to call him a friend. Craig Boddington,
thank you for all the encouraging words, both in print and in conversation.

And, there are those in the industry who make the author’s life easier by simply being
available to discuss and explain. Chris Hodgdon of Hodgdon Powders, Bill Hober of Swift
Bullets, Randy Brooks of Barnes Bullets, the good folks at North Fork Bullets, Carroll
Pillant of Sierra, Kent Sakamoto at RCBS, and last but most certainly not least, my friend
Robin Sharpless at Redding Reloading Products, have all helped in the gathering and
presenting of this information. Gentlemen, I raise my glass to you.

Last, there are those in your life who help to shape things along the way. I was taught
to reload by my dad, Philip J. Massaro. He’s a damned good handloader in his own right,
and I’d like to thank him for showing me what goes where. Donald B. Thome, Jr., USMC,
known better as Col. Le Frogg, broke me from the thought mold of one caliber, one bullet,
one powder. I’d like to thank you, Le Frogg, for being a mentor and a second father to me,
and for showing me the wide world of rifle and pistol calibers. J.D. Fielding, whose im¬
ages are throughout this book, and who is a wonderful human to work with. My pals Dave
de Moulpied, Mark “Pig-Newton” Nazi, Marty Groppi, Steve Darling, Jarrett Lane, Bill
Loeb, and Kevin Hicks, thank you gents for the countless hours spent talking boldly, as
men do, about guns, hunting and reloading. And special thanks to my wife, Suzie, who has
been so supportive during the hours I’ve sat in front of the computer keyboard, wondering
if I could really do this. I love you sweetie .—Philip E Massaro

5

FOREWORD

This is Phil Massaro’s first book. This fact is important not so that we can forgive
any imperfections or lack of completeness; these may or may not be present, but,
after all, Webster’s Dictionary is still a work in progress. Absolute perfection and
total completeness, regardless one’s first book or last book, are impossibly beyond
reach and cannot be expected.

Undoubtedly, there are some things you or I may wish had been included and,
since The Gun Digest Shooter s Guide to Reloading is very much a hands-on, how¬
to book, there may even be things we might do differently. It’s perfectly okay to
disagree, but let’s keep in mind that this is Phil Massaro’s book, not yours or mine.
That said, it is a complete book, a valuable tool for anyone interested in improving
their reloading techniques and repertoire, and improving the performance of their
firearms. The methodology is sound and up to date, and Phil’s knowledge of the
subject is clearly there.

I have written many books over a long career, but I would be the first to say that
this is not a book I could write. I started handloading about 1964, the same year I
saw the Beatles on their first tour (I put that in because, although Phil is also an ac¬
complished musician, he’s a bit too young to have seen the Beatles!). My family was
comprised of shotgunners and bird hunters who had absolutely no familiarity with
centerfire rifles, so Dad turned me over to a friend, Jack Pohl, of the old E.C. Bishop
and Sons gunstock company in Warsaw, Missouri (“Gunstock Capitol of the World”
said the sign on the city limits). The deal was that before Jack would teach me (and
Dad) rifle shooting, we had to first learn how to reload.

The propellants were post-World War II bulk from Hodgdon, stored in smoky
glass jars, but the principles of the practice were pretty much the same, as were
the most basic tools. A major difference, of course, is that today have a lot more
powders, bullets, and primers to choose from than we did back then, along with a
bewildering array of data. A more subtle difference is that precision techniques and
specialized tools have advanced tremendously in the last half-century. I freely admit
that I have made no effort to keep up—so there is no way I could even attempt to
write this book. Phil Massaro could, though, and did. He is at the same time both
a student and professor of reloading, master of the classical form of the art, and
experimenter in the emerging technological alchemy. Although I’ve been doing this
stuff for a very long time, this is a book I will learn from and often refer back to.

I stated at the beginning that this was Phil’s first book. This is important for him,
because a first book is a major milestone for any writer. It is a long and grueling pro¬
cess, and the first book is the hardest of all. It begins with the seemingly impossible
task of convincing a publisher that you have something to say. In fact Phil Massaro

6 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

does have something to say—quite a lot and of value, as you will see. Ah, but once
having made the sale, the writer now has to produce the goods. As he sets to the task,
he reminds himself constantly to “be careful what you wish for.” It seems like it will
never be finished, and, indeed, many books that are started are never finished. This
one obviously was, and it’s a good book, full of valuable information on its subject.

This last is why the book is important to you—but it should also be important to
you that this is Phil Massaro’s first book, because I am certain it will not be his last!
I met Phil at the massive Harrisburg Sports Show a few years back. I liked him, and
what’s not to like? Still a young man, I found him energetic, passionate, and amaz¬
ingly knowledgeable about shooting and hunting. We’ve traded information back
and forth, and I’ve called upon his Massaro Ballistics Laboratories to solve some
vexing ammo problems—with consistently superb results. He knows his stuff.

The Gun Digest publishing house has presented many books from many writers
for many years. So it is and should be expected that Phil knows his stuff. That is
almost a given. Here’s the challenge: This is not a subject that is easy to write about,
nor is it normally easy to read. Let’s face it, reloading, though an enjoyable and re¬
warding pastime, is a fairly dry subject! Even with the required detailed knowledge
(which Phil surely has), technical stuff is hard to write and harder to make enjoyable
to read. This is a difference that you will find in this book, Phil Massaro’s first (but
surely not his last).

When I met Phil, he told me he was doing some writing and would like to do
more. Of course, I hear that a lot, but I liked him and offered what encouragement
I could. He had the technical knowledge and the passion, two great prerequisites in
this specialized field, but here’s what I didn’t realize for a while: He also has the tal¬
ent! His writing is lively and fresh, bringing both feeling and humor to a subject that
has traditionally been dealt with in staid, textbook fashion. Because of that, because
of Phil, you will not only learn from this book, you will enjoy it. This, I suspect, will
make you refer back to it more often, rendering this book even more useful. Whether
a first or last book, The Gun Digest Shooters Guide to Reloading is, thus, a milestone
work on the subject: Not only packed with useful information, but also readable and
thus even more useful. I am very pleased that it’s his first book rather than his last,
because I am convinced that we will be reading—and enjoying—a lot more Phil
Massaro in years to come !—Craig Boddington

1

CONTENTS

About the Author.4

Acknowledgements.5

Foreword.6

Introduction.9

Chapter 1: A Reloading Overview: Why Do I Want to Do This?.10

Chapter 2: The Cartridge Components.17

Chapter 3: ReloadingTools.49

Chapter 4: Case Work.77

Chapter 5: Putting Your Handload Together.96

Chapter 6: What to Buy. Ill

Chapter 7: The Right Combination for the Job. 164

Chapter 8: Why Didn't This Work Out?. 197

Chapter 9: Specialty Situations.214

Chapter 10: Success Stories.232

8 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

INTRODUCTION

Once upon a time, a little boy watched his father sort out the spent brass casings from his
.308 Winchester, after returning from a trip to the shooting range to sight in the rifle for the
upcoming deer season. The questions came forth immediately.

“Dad, why are you saving those?”

“Because you can reload them and shoot them again.”

“Dad, can we do that?”

“Yes we can. I’ll have to pick up some bullets, powder, and primers.”

“Dad, can we do that now? Pleeeeeeeease ?”

As you can see, this youth was enamored with the idea of spending time with his
father making ammunition (he still is), and he had an immediate thirst for knowledge of
the subject. Long tale made short, the boy and his dad did make those .308s come alive
again and, when the little guy got to be a bigger guy, a love affair with both firearms and
the experimentation with ammunition would just about drive his father off the deep end.

That boy is me. I say is, and not was, because I’ve never lost that boyhood feeling
of excitement when it comes to creating special ammunition that cannot be purchased,
whether it’s a plinking load for a pistol or some dangerous-game ammunition that gets
me one step closer to being in the hunting fields I love so much. I still get excited about
the polished gold or silver colored cases, the sharp tips of spitzer bullets, the parallel¬
sided solids, and the mystique of hunting strange places with stranger names, with these
components in hand.

This book is a how-to manual, in that, when you are done reading it, you will know
the basic principles and proper methods of loading a centerfire pistol or rifle cartridge. I
also hope that it inspires the reader to further probe into the endless possibilities, when it
comes to choosing a combination of bullet and powder that will make you proud and con¬
fident in your choice of firearm. Reloading ammunition gives the shooter an opportunity
to spend additional time at the range with their guns, and that enhances the bond between
the shooter and the tools they use.

While most instructional manuals can be legally classified as a cure for insomnia, The
Gun Digest Shooters Guide to Reloading was written in an attempt to convey the techni¬
cal message in a real-world manner based on real-world experiences; I’ve done my best to
demystify some of the scarier terminology and nomenclature associated with ammunition
and the practice of reloading it. This book is not designed to standalone. It will require the
wealth of information found in the quality reloading manuals published by others to be
fully useful. Yet this book will be very helpful in clearly and simply explaining the reload¬
ing processes and get you out of trouble should something go awry. Too, if you have already
been a loader for some time, you may find some helpful tips and new products that are
available to whet your appetite within these pages. For those new to it all, please soak it in
and enjoy your new hobby !—Philip P Massaro

9

CHAPTER 1

A RELOADING OVERVIEW:

Why Do I Want To Do This?

Reloading is a highly rewarding activity. (Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

I t happens often. I’ll be at a party
or some type of gathering, and
one of the crew starts talking
about reloading. We’re gun folks,
it’s like that. If more than one of
the crew is assembled, it gets pretty
deep. There have been nights where
Mark “Pig-Newton” Nazi (yes, that’s
really his last name), Marty Groppi,

and I end up in a conversation that
sounds like Chinese algebra to the
bystander. Folks look on in wonder
(or is it pity?) as we debate powder
burn rates and sectional densities and
idly prattle on about secant ogives. I
must admit, it’s a bit nerdy, but once
you take the plunge into the world
of creating and controlling your own

10 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

The process of reloading a rifle cartridge.

ammunition, it can be downright
addicting. It will help you better
understand your firearms and how to
better use the right tool for the shoot¬
ing situation at hand. Also, know
that if you’re already terrified after
reading the phrases “sectional densi¬
ties” and “secant ogives,” rest assured
that, within the covers of this book,

I hope to dispel much of the arcane

All types of center!ire cartridges can be reloaded.

language and mathematics that can
make so many shooters feel dizzy at
the thought of reloading. I shall do
my best to explain it plainly, without
you either running for the hills or
nodding off.

The first question you may have is
“Why would I want to reload?” Good
question, because today’s factory am¬
munition is good stuff, hands down.

It’s available in many different calibers
and with the choice of many differ¬
ent bullets. But not all rifles or pistols
perform well with factory ammuni¬
tion. Some give poor accuracy. Others
give a level of recoil that is unpleasant.
With custom ammunition, handloaded
by you, both accuracy and speed (and,
therefore, recoil), can be tailored to
suit your needs.

Reloading can be likened to a suit
of clothing: Sometimes a suit fits just
right off the rack, while other times
you’re going to look and feel your

A RELOADING OVERVIEW: WHY DO I WANT TO DO THIS? 11

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

best with a suit that is custom-made
to your measurements and in the
style and color you like. I get a sense
of pride when I take the walk to the
target board and see good accuracy
and tight groups, or when I cleanly
and quickly take an animal in the
hunting fields with ammunition of
my own creation.

Another reason to reload is that
many hunters and shooters own
and enjoy rifles and pistols that are
chambered for cartridges the ammu¬
nition companies have dropped from
their product lines. Then what? Well,
don’t retire that gun so quickly! By
purchasing the necessary tools and
components, you can make a lifetime
supply of ammo for your old sweet¬
heart. My dear friend and mentor,
Donald B. Thorne, Jr., USMC, better

known as “Colonel Le Frogg,” has a
Winchester Model 70 rifle he loves,
one that’s chambered in the venerable
.264 Winchester Magnum. This is a
wonderful cartridge, but long ago lost
the popularity contest to the 7mm
Remington Magnum; subsequently,
factory ammunition for this round
was dropped by most ammunition
companies. Le Frogg ordered a bunch
of cases, some suitable bullets, and
reloading dies. Together, he and I
created all the ammunition he will
ever need. As a custom ammunition
shop, my company Massaro Ballistic
Laboratories has been honored to
provide some rarities to our clients,
so they can enjoy their older or near-
obsolete firearms. With the guidance
contained in this book, you can do
the same for yourself.

Cases are invaluable to the reloader. (Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

12 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Reloading, also known as hand¬
loading, is the process of creating am¬
munition. Sometimes this means using
spent casings, which you’ll need to
reform to their original specifications.
Sometimes reloading means you’re
assembling all new components. It’s a
rewarding hobby either way and one
that allows you to spend time with
friends and loved ones. I learned from
my father, good ol’ Grumpy Pants, and
have made many friends and acquain¬
tances while discussing the various
aspects of loading ammunition. In fact,
Massaro Ballistic Laboratories came
to fruition after many years of hobby
handloading all sorts of rifle and pistol
ammunition for family and friends.

You can learn, too, and, as long as you
are careful and diligent, you’ll have a
great time doing it!

Reloading is cost effective, an¬
other reason to give this an honest
try. Let’s face it, premium ammuni¬
tion has become very expensive,
and that’s when you can find it at all.
For many years, I have created my
own premium ammunition for target
shooting and hunting, at a fraction
of the cost of purchasing factory
stuff. The bigger calibers (which I
really enjoy shooting) are particularly
expensive to buy. Some of my safari
rifles shoot cartridges that cost more
than $200 per box of 20 rounds! Only
through handloading could I afford
to practice and hunt with these rifles.
Those of you who enjoy time at the
shooting range can shoot more often
when ammunition is more economi¬
cal. And more time shooting is a very
good thing!

Massaro Ballistic

Laboratories .270
Winchester Short Magnum
ammunition. MBL is a custom
handloader, and what the folks
there do, you can, too.

A RELOADING OVERVIEW: WHY DO I WANT TO DO THIS? 13

Instruction at the bench. It’s always helpful if you have an experienced reloader who can help you
through your first rounds and troubleshoot any problems you might have with your initial press setup.

Introducing new shooters, includ¬
ing youngsters and the many women
who are learning to enjoy the shooting
sports these days, can be a frustrating
proposition for both instructor and
student, when the recoil of the firearm
is too severe to promote good tech¬

nique. The handloader can produce
reduced-velocity ammunition that will
allow the new shooter to ease into the
feel of the rifle or pistol and develop
good habits and shooting skills.

By handloading and developing
the proper loads for your particular

14 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Left to right, the author, Colonel Le Frogg, and his father, a.k.a. Grumpy Pants, discussing some new
handloaded ammunition for their next hunt.

firearms, you not only create ammuni¬
tion that is best suited for the shoot¬
ing situation at hand, you become
much more confident in your gun.

The added time spent at the bench
developing these loads will allow you
to become much more familiar (and
therefore safe!) with your chosen
firearms, work out any potential
hardware problems along the way,
and may make the difference when
the trophy of your dreams presents
itself or when those precious tenths
of a second mean the difference in
the gun games. Gaining a thorough
knowledge of your chosen cartridge’s
capabilities by loading the ammuni¬
tion for it will certainly be an aid
in maximizing the potential of your
rifle or handgun. Seeing the repeat-
able results produced by consistent
handloads will allow you to settle in

behind the sights of your firearm and
know that you have a combination
of gun and ammunition that shoots
like an extension of your arm. That’s
something invaluable to me.

A thorough knowledge of reload¬
ing can also help aid in the choice
of future firearms. Knowing the
ballistics of a myriad of cartridges, as
listed in any good reloading manual,
will help you sift through the old
wives’ tales and rhetoric about the
performance of certain rounds. With
that knowledge replacing myth,
you’ll be well educated and fully
capable of making an independent
decision to purchase the firearms that
best suit your needs.

Finally, there are often times you
simply can’t purchase the cartridge/
bullet combination you envision.
Sure, there are lots of choices avail-

A RELOADING OVERVIEW: WHY DO I WANT TO DO THIS? 15

able, hundreds even, but, if, you want
a particular new whiz-bang bullet in
a cartridge you are simply enamored
with, you may have no choice other
than to assemble it yourself. I’ve had
the privilege of working with several
professional hunters, in conjunction
with major bullet manufacturers, to
create ammunition for specific pur¬
poses, including the hunt for danger¬
ous game. This ammunition is not
available in stores, but our handloads
suit the purpose at hand perfectly.

As I write these words, in the fall
of 2013, we shooters are experienc¬
ing the biggest ammunition shortage
in living memory. Store shelves are
bare, ammunition is back-ordered,
and though the ammunition facto¬
ries are running at full capacity, the
demand seems still to be growing
faster. Reloading your own ammuni¬
tion is a means of making sure you
always have a supply of ammunition
on hand for your firearms. Powder
and primers need to be purchased,
but cases can be reused. Bullets can
even be cast from lead.

I’ll break down the process in detail
in the chapters that follow, but, for the
present, here’s the basic process of
creating a single round of ammunition:

A cartridge case, if previously
fired, must be resized back to its
original dimensions. This is ac¬
complished with “reloading dies,”
with the mechanical advantage of a
“reloading press.” Once the case is
properly sized, the spent primer is
removed and a new one is installed.
An appropriate powder charge is then
poured into the case and the new bul¬
let seated. It’s that simple. It is also
infinitely complex, when you start
to get into the subtle nuances and
customize the performance of your
handgun or rifle. There are many
rules and details, which we will dis¬
cuss, but that’s the general gist of it.

The particular reloading setup you
choose can be as simple or complex
as you choose to make it. It does
require a particular level of respect
(gunpowder is a highly flammable
substance), diligent record keeping,
and your undivided attention. We will
cover the components, the tools need¬
ed, the physics of this process, some
helpful hints and scenarios, new
products available, and many other
points in the pages to come. So, have
a seat, and allow me to introduce you
to the world of reloading. Promise,
we’ll have some fun.

16 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

CHAPTER 2

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS

The components, in exploded view.

THE CARTRIDGE CASE

The brass cartridge case is simply
a combustion chamber. It holds the
primer, powder charge, and bullet and
withstands the forces of firing. It is
a rugged, durable means of loading
and reloading a rifle or pistol. The
cartridge, fully assembled, is loaded
into the rifle’s or pistol’s chamber;
the gun’s mechanism securely locks
the cartridge in place by means of a
bolt, breech, falling block, or cylin¬
der. When the trigger is pulled and
the gun’s hammer comes forward,

the primer is struck by the firing pin,
sending a shower of sparks through its
flash hole and into the powder charge.
The resulting combustion creates a
pressure level that forces the bullet to
leave by its only point of escape, out
of the cartridge and down the barrel.
What you are left with is a an empty
cartridge case (holding the now spent
primer), which is now expanded to
a mirror image of the chamber. The
cartridge case is the only component
of this process that can be reshaped
and reused.

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 17

(Photos courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

CARTRIDGE FIRING SEQUENCE

1. Firing Pin crushes priming compound against internal anvil,
sending sparks through flash hole into the powder charge.

2. Powder Charge burnes, creating pressure from combustion.

3, Pressure sends bullet down the barrel, the only means of escape.

18 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

biography)

A case with a cracked
neck from repeated
firing and resizing.

All standardized
cartridges in the U.S.
are approved and
regulated by SAAMI,
the Sporting Arms and
Ammunition Manufactur¬
ers’ Institute (www.saami.
org). Founded in 1926,
this organization defines the
standards and specifications for
a particular cartridge. These stan¬
dards include precise dimensioning
and pressure limits. SAAMI offers
highly detailed drawings of most any
case it’s approved, which can aid you
in case preparation and resizing.

Most of the reloadable cartridge
cases in use today are made of brass
or nickel-coated brass. Brass is used
because it is a malleable metal and
can be reformed many times before it
becomes brittle and cracks.

Although brass is malleable, it
tarnishes easily, especially in wet
weather or when handled frequently
by sweaty hands (the salt and acids
in your sweat tarnishes brass). This
led to the development of nickel-
coated brass. Nickel is still mal¬
leable enough to be formed and
resized, but it doesn’t tarnish. I like
nickel brass, but the only caveat I
would offer to using such cases is
that nickel brass can scratch conven¬
tional reloading dies after prolonged
use, as it’s a harder metal than is

brass; titanium and
carbide dies help solve this
issue. Please note: Some of the more
inexpensive ammunition is produced
with steel cases, and these should
not be reloaded. A small magnet will
easily identify these cases, so they
may be discarded.

There are two styles of primer
pockets seen in centerfire cases.
Boxer primed cases are the most
common and are the type used here
in America. They have a centrally
located flash hole, through which
the spark is delivered to ignite the
powder charge. Berdan primed cases,
in which there are two off-center
flash holes to deliver the spark when
the primer is crushed against an anvil
in the primer, is more rare here in the

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 19

States, but are still popular in Eu¬
rope. As reloaders with conventional
tools, we can only use and reform
Boxer primed cases. You should
never try to resize or reuse any
Berdan primed case without the very
specialized tools made for these, as
you will damage your conventional
reloading tools. Make sure to care¬
fully segregate any cases that may be
Berdan primed, to avoid any confu¬
sion or broken gear.

Cartridge cases are constructed
in two styles: straight-walled, in
which the sides of the case are either
parallel or very slightly tapered from
bottom to mouth; and bottlenecked,
in which the cartridge diameter steps
down/in at what we call the shoulder,

to achieve a diameter suitable for
holding the bullet. There are different
loading techniques for each, which
we will discuss in chapters four
and five. Rifle cartridges use both
types of cases. The .458 Winchester
Magnum, .38-55 Winchester, .45-70
Government, .444 Marlin, and .405
Winchester are some examples of
straight-walled cases, while the .22-
250 Remington, .30-06 Springfield,
7mm Remington Magnum, .270 Win¬
chester, and .375 Holland & Holland
Magnum are examples of bottle¬
necked cartridges. For pistols, most
cases are straight walled. The 9mm
Luger, .45 ACP, .38 Special, and .44
Remington Magnum come easily to
mind. There are a few exceptions,

Rimmed pistol and rifle cartridges. Left to right, .45 Colt, .38 Special, .30-30 WCF, .348 Winchester,
.45-120 Sharps, and .500 Nitro Express.

20 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Rimless cartridges. Left to right, .22-250 Remington, .270 Winchester, .308 Winchester, .30-06
Springfield, and .35 Whelen.

such as the bottlenecked .256 Win¬
chester and the .357 SIG.

Among the different cases avail¬
able, there are different types of rims.
The cartridge rim is located at the
base of the cartridge; the primer is
located centrally within it. The rim
serves as the portion of the case that’s
grabbed by the bolt face of the pistol
or rifle upon loading and is used by
the extractor to extract the fired case.
There are five main classifications of
rims, as follows:

A rimmed cartridge is one that has
a rim that extends beyond the diam¬
eter of the case body (bet you never

saw that coming!). This extended rim
serves to hold the case in the cham¬
ber. It also serves as a positive depth
guide for headspacing. The earli¬
est cartridge designs were rimmed,
designed for single-shot and early
lever-action rifles, as well as the first
revolvers. Some rimmed cartridge
examples are the venerable .30-30
WCF, the .357 Magnum, the .303
British, .32 Winchester Special, and
.45-70 Government.

A rimless cartridge, despite its
moniker, actually has a rim, but it’s
the same diameter as the case body,
with a groove machined into the area

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 21

Rebated rim cartridges. Left to right, .270 WSM, .300 WSM, .284 Winchester, .300 Remington Ultra
Magnum, and .500 Jeffrey.

just in front of the case head. Rimless
cases headspace on either the car¬
tridge shoulder (for a bottle-necked
case) or the case mouth (for some
straight-walled case). The firearm’s
extractor grabs the case by the groove
in front of the case head. This design
greatly facilitates cartridge feed¬
ing from a spring-loaded magazine.
These cartridges saw the light of day
in the late 1880s. Some examples
of rimless cases are the .308 Win¬
chester, .30-06 Springfield, 5.56mm
NATO, .45 ACP, .40 S&W, 7x57mm
Mauser, and .25-06 Remington.

Possibly the rarest type, a semi-
rimmed cartridge has a very small
amount of rim extending past the di¬
ameter of the case body, but not nearly
as much as a rimmed case. It was
designed for the positive headspacing
capability of the rimmed cartridge,
while coming close to achieving the
ease of feeding from a magazine that
the rimless cartridges possess. Ex¬
amples of semi rimmed cases are the
.25 ACP and the .444 Marlin.

A rebated rim case is one that uses
a rim dimension smaller than the
diameter of the case body, but this

22 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

rim’s only purpose is of one to serve
extraction. This is a feature seen on
the Winchester Short Magnum series
and the Remington Ultra Magnum
line, rounds designed to have huge
case capacity for high velocities.
Other examples of rebated rim
cartridges are the .50 Beowulf, .500
Jeffery, and the .284 Winchester.

The belted magnum case, dating
back to 1910, has a “belt” of raised
brass ahead of the extractor groove,
yet has a case head designed similar¬
ly to that of rimless cases. The theory
behind this design was to provide
the easy feeding from a rifle’s box
magazine (a la rimless), while offer¬

ing the positive headspacing from
the rim, rather than the shoulder (a la
rimmed). The British firm of Holland
& Holland first offered this case de¬
sign in its .375 Velopex (which never
caught on) and used it again, in 1912,
in its .375 Belted Rimless Nitro
Express (better known as our African
classic, the .375 H&H Magnum).

This case led to the development of
the Super .30, or .300 Holland &
Holland Magnum, in 1925, and it was
this belted case design that would be
the basis for nearly every case that
had “Magnum” in its name, includ¬
ing those in the Weatherby line, until
the Winchester Short Magnums and

Belted magnums. Left to right, .264 Winchester Magnum, .300 Winchester Magnum, .338 Winchester
Magnum, .375 H&H Magnum, .416 Remington Magnum, and .458 Winchester Magnum.

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 23

Remington Ultra Magnums came
along at the turn of the twenty-first
century. These newer Magnum cases
are primarily based on the beltless
.404 Jeffery.

CARTRIDGE NOMENCLATURE:

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Perusing through Grumpy Pants’
(henceforth known as GP) hunt¬
ing magazines when I was a young
man, I would read about the various
cartridges the authors used and be
consumed. It was like finding the
secret words to a magic spell—.30-30
WCF, 7x57 Mauser, .375 Holland &
Holland Belted Rimless Magnum,
.250-3000 Savage, .44-40, 7mm-08
Remington, .264 Winchester Mag¬
num. The names captivated me. How¬
ever, part of the mystique was born
of my own ignorance. I just couldn’t
make sense of where the names
came from nor what they stood for.
An evening spent with my dad and a
reloading manual (a 1970 Sierra edi¬
tion that I cherish and he still uses),
demystified the jumbles of numbers.
If you already have a good handle on
it, bear with me. If you don’t, please
allow me to explain.

The development of metallic car¬
tridges required a different means of
naming the particular case that the
rifle used, as there were many dif¬
ferent cases that used the same bore
diameter. An early and still com¬
mon example is the .45-70, often
referred to as the .45-70 Govern¬
ment. The original designation for
this cartridge was the .45-70-405.

It works like this: “.45” is the bore

diameter (actually 0.458-inch); the
“70” is the weight of the black-
powder charge (70 grains); and the
“405” is the weight of the projectile
(a 405-grain bullet). Many car¬
tridges existed using this method
nomenclature. Indeed, a few are
still hanging around today. In 1895,
the .30-30 WCF was Winchester’s
proprietary baby. The WCF stands
for “Winchester Center Fire,” where
the .30 is the bore diameter (0.308-
inch), and the powder charge was 30
grains of blackpowder. The .38-55
works the same way: a .38 bore (ac¬
tually 0.375-inch, to be picky), with
a 55-grain powder charge.

As blackpowder stepped off
stage to let smokeless powder into
the spotlight, the labeling changed.
Peter Paul Mauser developed the
7x57mm, known better to the
sporting world as the 7mm Mauser,
7x57mm Mauser, and even the .275
Rigby. The cartridge uses a 7mm
bore diameter (measuring the rifle’s
lands; the groove diameter is 7.24mm
or 0.284-inch), and the case length is
57.0mm. This led the way for nam¬
ing most of the cartridges from the
European Continent. The 6.5x54mm
Mannlicher-Schoenauer, the 8x57mm
Mauser, the 9.3x74R (the “R” stands
for rimmed), and the 6.5x55mm
Swedish Mauser are all examples of
the metric “Continental” designation.
Some included the name of the pro¬
prietor or inventor, others did not.

Sportsmen in Great Britain and
America would have none of that
metric nonsense. It was decimal
portions of an inch for those in the
UK and the USA or nothing. This

24 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

honestly makes no sense to me, as
it sort of blends different systems
of measurements, but who am I
to question it? The divide was so
pronounced that, when the firm of
John Rigby & Co. started to distrib¬
ute the 7x57mm Mauser cartridge in
its sporting rifles, it deemed a name
change was in order, and so we have
the .275 Rigby—but even that’s not
as simple as it may seem.

Most British cartridges (but
certainly not all, as I will illustrate),
are named for the diameter between
the lands of the bore’s rifling, not the
grooves as we Americans do. The
bullet (and therefore groove) diam¬
eter of the 7x57 is 0.284-inch. The
land diameter is 0.275-inch and, so,
the .275 Rigby was born.

Now, just when you think you
may have it all figured out, you need
to know that many of the British

cases use a bullet diameter larger
than the name suggests. The .303
British, for instance, uses a bullet
of 0.311 -inch diameter, the .318
Westley-Richards uses a bullet diam¬
eter of 0.330-inch, the .404 Jeffrey
uses 0.423-inch bullet, and the .500
Jeffrey uses a 0.510-inch bullet, just
to name a few.

Clear as mud, right? Then it
shouldn’t come as any surprise that
there are exceptions to all the nam¬
ing rules. The most glaring example
is the famous .375 H&H (short for
the firm of Holland & Holland)
Magnum. Its bore diameter is exact¬
ly 0.375-inch and that is the diam¬
eter of the bullets used. The popular
.416 Rigby also fits this bill, with a
bullet diameter that is exactly 0.416-
inch. These exceptions are why you
need to read your reloading manual
thoroughly for each cartridge you

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 25

intend to load. An assumption could
be catastrophic!

The Norwegian .30-40 Krag was
adopted by the US Government in
1894, using a 220-grain bullet and
40 grains of nitrocellulose (smoke¬
less) powder. It is one of the few
cases to use smokeless powder, but
be named in the style of the black-
powder cartridges. Next came the
case voted “most likely to succeed”
by the very universe itself: the .30-
06 Springfield. Based on the naming
system I’ve just discussed, you’re
probably going to tell me that the
name means .30-caliber with 06
grains of powder. Nope. This is just
another wrench in the works. The
U.S. Army designation was “Ball
Ammunition, .30-caliber, Model
of 1906.” Somehow the name was
shortened to the .30-06.

My fellow Americans tended to be
a bit more creative with the naming
process, sometimes rounding off the
bore diameter, other times actually
using a false one to differentiate the
numerous cases for one bore size.
Some examples of this are easy to
pick up on. One of our most popular
bore sizes in America is the great
.30-caliber, or 0.308-inch. Many
cases use this size bullet but go by
different monikers. The .308 Win¬
chester, .300 Savage, .308 Norma
Magnum, .300 Holland & Hol¬
land, .307 Winchester, .30-40 Krag,
.30-06 Springfield, .300 Winchester
Magnum, .300 Weatherby Magnum,
.309 JDJ, and .300 Remington Ultra
Magnum all use the 0.308-inch bullet
diameter, but the cases are in no way
interchangeable.

Sometimes, metric designations
are converted to English units for a
new name. The 7x57 Mauser, 7mm
Remington Magnum, .284 Win¬
chester, and .280 Remington all use
0.284-inch bullets. The .280 Rem¬
ington was even renamed the 7mm
Express Remington for a while, to
further complicate matters!

Because of the wide array of
.22-caliber centerfire cartridges avail¬
able, the number or caliber portion of
a cartridge name is often adjusted so
as to differentiate one from another.
Within the selection of cases that use
0.224-inch bullets, for instance, we
have the .218 Bee, .219 Zipper, .220
Swift, .221 Fireball, .222 Remington,
.223 Remington, .224 Weatherby, and
the .225 Winchester! Woof!

Sometimes the company that
developed the case gets its name
involved, such as with the .270
Winchester, 6mm Remington, or .300
Weatherby. Other times it’s the last
name of the developer or a tribute
to the developer. The .35 Whelen
is named for famed gun writer and
cartridge developer Col. Townsend
Whelen, and the .257 Roberts
(known often as the “Bob”) is a tip-
o’-the-hat to developer Ned Roberts.

Then there are the times the case
name comes from the combination
of an existing case changed to hold a
bullet diameter different than that of
the original. These cases began life
as “wildcats.” Here in America, when
we name a wildcat cartridge, the new
bullet diameter is listed first, then the
parent case is referenced. The .25-06
Remington is one: it is a .30-06 case
resized to hold 0.257-inch bullets.

26 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

A Lapua
.22-250
case head.

The .22-250 Remington is a .250-
3000 Savage case necked down to
hold 0.224-inch bullets. Seems easy
enough, but this method of naming
gets a bit strange now and then, as in
the case of the 7mm-08. This is a .308
Winchester case necked down to hold
7mm projectiles. I believe the proper
terminology would have been 7mm-
308, but that’s not how it happened.

In Great Britain, it works in the op¬
posite manner. Instead of putting the
bore diameter in front of the parent
case, the parent case bore diameter is
placed in front of the new bullet size.
The classic .450/400 Nitro Express is
a .450 NE resized to hold a 0.405-
inch bullet, and the .577/450 Martini-
Henry is a .577 Snider case necked
down to hold 0.455-inch bullets.

Then there’s the stuff that can
only be called weird. Savage in¬
troduced the .250-3000 Savage,
in 1915. Using light-for-caliber
87-grain bullets, it was the first
cartridge to break the 3,000 feet per
second (fps) mark. This was so im¬
portant to the Savage Arms Company
that it included the figure in the case
name: A .250-diameter bullet—okay,
technically it’s 0.257-inch, because
all of this isn’t confusing enough—
exceeding 3,000 fps.

However you slice it, fascinating
to bewildering a general familiarity
with the naming of cartridges is im¬
portant to avoid a possible confusion
when loading and/or shooting. I now
return you to your regularly sched¬
uled programming.

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 27

THE PRIMER

That tiny metal cup in the center
of your cartridge case head, struck
by the firing pin, is the first spark in
the chain of combustion that leads to
a bullet being launched. The spark
is created by the reaction of lead,
barium nitrate, and other chemical
compounds being crushed against the
anvil located within the primer cup.
This explosion sends sparks through
the primer’s flash hole and into the
powder charge. The design is really
just an upgrade on the first percus¬
sion caps used in the muzzleloading
rifles of the mid-nineteenth century;
the percussion cap, too, needed to be
struck against an anvil, in this case
the nipple on the percussion lock. So,
the modern configuration of primers
for centerfire cartridges features an

anvil self-contained within the primer
itself.

As a side note to the discussion on
primers, know that care must be taken
when firing old (WWII-era or earlier)
military ammunition. Years ago, the
priming compound contained fulmi¬
nate of mercury, which is a corrosive
substance. While commercial sporting
ammunition made the switch to non-
mercuric primers around the turn of
the twentieth century, the U.S. military
did not make the official switch until
after the Second World War. If you
find such ammunition and your pre¬
liminary inspection shows it to be in
sound, fireable condition, be sure and
clean your rifle with a good solvent
after shooting it. When my pal Hicksy
bought “Autumn,” his sweetheart .30-
06, we had a surplus of WWII military

28 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Primer varieties.

(Photos both pages courtesy
Massaro Media Group & J.D.
Fielding Photography)

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 29

ammunition, which we used for prac¬
tice and sighting in. After taking the
rifle to the range one day, he neglected
to clean it until several days late—he
could barely fit a patch down the bore
because of the corrosion caused by
those old primers. That was the last
time we shot that old ammo without
cleaning immediately! Thankfully,
today’s primers are non-corrosive.

There are two types of primers,
for our purposes, in the discussion of
reloading metallic cartridges: Rifle
primers and Pistol primers. Each
variety comes in Large and Small
sizes, just as each size has a Magnum
variation that has a hotter spark. Rifle
primers have a thicker metal cup,
due to the higher pressures at which
they operate. Pistols operate at much
lower pressures and, so, the primer
cups are thinner. Large Rifle and

Large Pistol primers are 0.210-inch
in diameter, while Small Rifle and
Small Pistol primers are 0.175-inch
in diameter. I’ve heard the myth of a
“medium” primer measuring 0.204-
inch, made by the Prankfort Arsenal
in Pennsylvania, but I’ve never seen
one with my own eyes.

Primer designations can be con¬
fusing, so you must make a habit of
checking and double-checking your
reloading data manual, so you have
the correct primers for the cartridges
you’re loading. Here are some ex¬
amples of primer nomenclature:

• Large Rifle: CCI 200, Federal
210, Remington 9 l A, Winchester
WLR

• Large Rifle Magnum: CCI 250,
Federal 215, Remington 9VS M,
Winchester WLRM

30 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

100

CCl

No. 41
PRIMERS

For 5.56mm Ammunition

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on back panel, 3

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CCl primers
designed
for military
rifles.

• Small Rifle: CCl 400, Federal
205, Remington 6 F 2 , Winchester
WSR

• Small Rifle Magnum: CCl 450,
Federal 250M, Remington IVi

• Large Pistol: CCl 300, Federal
150, Remington 2/4, Winchester
WLP

• Large Pistol Magnum: CCl 350,
Federal 155, Winchester WLPM

• Small Pistol: CCl 500, Federal
100, Remington 1F 2 , Winchester
WSP

• Small Pistol Magnum: CCl
550, Federal 200, Remington
5 F 2 , Winchester WSPM

There are several varieties of
“Match” primers available. These
have been shown to give the most
consistent results and are readily
embraced by the target shooting

community. Several companies also
produce “military primers,” which
have the thickest cups. These are
designed for use in the AR platform
and other military-type rifles and
are made to military specifications.
The CCl 34 (Large Rifle) and CCl
41 (Small Rifle) are two examples.
These primers are designed to avoid
a slam fire, something infrequently
associated with the protruding firing
pins of military firearms.

Always use the type and brand
of primer called for in the reloading
manual you are referring to for load
data, as a change in primers can result
in a change in pressure. Never substi¬
tute. It is also a good idea to have only
one type of primer brand and size on
your reloading bench at one time, to
avoid any confusion and a possibly
dangerous situation at the bench.

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 31

THE POWDER

Warm apple pie, evergreens
in November, puppy’s breath, my
wife’s perfume—these are among
my favorite scents. All of them pale
in comparison to the wonderful,
acrid scent of burnt gunpowder. You
either know what I’m talking about
or you don’t.

So what is that magic stuff? What
is that mystical dust that makes
the sound of a tiny maraca when
you shake your favorite cartridge?
Some shooters never need or want to
answer this question, but, being the
curious human I am, I had to know.
Hours in my youth spent thumbing
through my dad’s reloading manual
admittedly left me more confused
than enlightened, but that’s reversed
now, so allow me to shed a little light
on this wonderful substance.

Friar Roger Bacon was the first
European to record the mixture for
gunpowder in the thirteenth century,
although it is a widely held belief that
Chinese culture had it long before
that. Regardless, that blissful blend of
sulphur, charcoal, and saltpeter called
“blackpowder” certainly changed the
world. It ruined the effectiveness of
metal armor, diminished the security
of the castle, and leveled the playing
field between strong, brave soldiers
and their more diminutive and cow¬
ardly counterparts.

Blackpowder hasn’t really changed
in its makeup over the last century
and is still going strong. However,
it burns dirty and leaves a corrosive
residue throughout the firearm’s
bore that must be removed quickly
to prevent rusting and pitting. Today
there are cleaner burning substitutes

32 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

available that have made the job of
cleanup easier. Hodgdon’s Pyrodex
and 777 are among these. Blackpow-
der is generally measured by volume,
not weight, and its substitutes are also
measured this way. Blackpowder is
graded and identified by the coarse¬
ness or fineness of the granules; Fg
is very coarse cannon and shotgun
powder, FFg and FFFg are finer and
used in many rifles and pistols, and
the finest, FFFFg, is usually reserved
for priming flintlock actions.

Progress was made in the scien¬
tific field of powder in the 1840s,
when nitric acid was put upon
cellulose to produce nitrocellulose.

This was known as “guncotton.” It
was capable of producing pressures
and velocities much greater than its
blackpowder counterpart, and it took
a bit to develop gun steel that could
withstand those higher pressures.
Later, in 1887, Alfred Nobel invented
nitroglycerine. When mixed with
nitrocellulose, it created a plasticized
substance that was a stable com¬
pound. Cordite, an early British ver¬
sion, was the propellant du jour for
many of our classic cartridges. One
of Cordite’s little peculiarities was
the fact that it was very sensitive to
temperature fluctuation. The cartridg¬
es that were developed in England

Flake powder grain structure.

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 33

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Stick powder.

and Continental Europe often had
pressure increases, when brought to
Africa and India. The Tropics showed
the flaws, from extraction troubles
to cracked receivers, and this is why
some of the huge cases like the .416
Rigby and the .470 Nitro Express
came about. They needed that kind
of internal case volume to keep the
pressures low.

Our modern single-base and
double-base smokeless powders have
resolved that issue, and the issue
of temperature sensitivity has been
diminished greatly. Single-base pow¬
ders are usually comprised mostly of
nitrocellulose; double-base powders
are a mixture of nitrocellulose and
nitroglycerine. Powders are coated
with a deterrent and a stabilizer. The
deterrent slows the burn rate to a
desired amount, and the stabilizer

slows down the decomposition of the
compound.

The shape of the powder granules
is usually one of three types: flake,
stick, and spherical. Flake powder
is usually shaped like miniature
pancakes. Many shotgun and pistol
powders are in this configuration, and
some contain colored flakes. Alliant’s
Green-Dot, Bullseye, and Unique are
three examples of flake powder.

Stick powder is one of the most
popular rifle powder shapes. The
compound is extruded into long,
spaghetti-like rods, then cut to the
desired length. Examples of stick
powder include IMR4064, IMR4350,
Hodgdon’s Varget and E14831, and
Alliant’s Reloder 25.

Spherical powder is just what you
think it would be, a round ball, or at
least a slightly flattened round ball.

34 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

These take up less space than stick
powder and can help achieve good
velocity in a case with limited capac¬
ity. Some of the spherical powders
include Hodgdon’s H380 and BL-
C(2), Winchester’s 760, and Accurate
Powder’s No. 9.

Powder is measured in grains, not
to be confused with grams. There are
7,000 grains to the pound. Depend¬
ing on the cartridge being loaded
(and especially pistol cartridges) a
variation of as little as a tenth of a
grain can make the difference be¬
tween a safely loaded cartridge and a
dangerous one that produces exces¬
sive pressures. It is imperative that
you strictly adhere to the load data
published by reputable manufactur¬
ers! I cannot stress that point enough.
The various reloading manuals are

products of months and years of pres¬
sure testing under strict laboratory
conditions, and an attempt to exceed
the published values can result in
your untimely demise. Start at the
published minimum charge weight
and carefully increase the charge as
you shoot through your loads. Always
stop when you see the first signs of
excessive pressure (bulged cases,
blown primers, cases that won’t
extract, etc).

The powders available to the
handloader are referred to as “canister
grade” powder. They are each unique
in their burn rates. Fast-burning
powders are (generally) used in
shotshells, small case rifle cartridges,
and many of the pistol cartridges. The
medium-burn cartridges work well in
standard rifle cartridges and some of

Hodgdon’s H335 spherical powder.

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 35

the bigger magnums. The newly de¬
veloped slow-burning powders really
shine in the huge overbore cases. The
velocity kings like the .30-378 Weath-
erby, 7mm STW, .338 Remington
Ultra Magnum, and .270 Winchester
Short Magnum all develop their high
speeds from very slow burning pow¬
ders, which develop the high pressure

■ i

1 At LI A NT POWDB

Technically Superior by

1 heavy magnum

SLOWEST BURNING POVY0ER

lup., maximum velocity

^ FOR OVER-BORE MAGNUS

MADE IN SWEDEN ^

ALL1ANT POWDER

I w Ww.3i»anECKJwder.com

EXTREMELY FiAMNABli **

necessary to push their bullets as fast
as they do.

Today’s powders go by many dif¬
ferent names. Some are just names,
like Bullseye, TiteGroup, Varget,

Red Dot or Unique. Others are just
numbers, such as Accurate Arms’

No. 5 and Winchester’s 760 and 748.
Some are a combination, such as
IMR7828, H380, N160, Reloder 15,
etc. It is important that you are pretty
well versed in the different powders,
so as to avoid confusion and pos¬
sible injury. An example: There are
three different powders, from three
different manufacturers, that contain
“4350” in their names: IMR4350
(“IMR” stands for Improved Mili¬
tary Rifle), H4350 (Hodgdon) and
AA4350 (Accurate Arms). All have
slightly different burn rates and are
not interchangeable. Strict attention
must be paid to ensure that you have
the powder in hand that the reloading
manual specifies. This rule must be
followed.

Storing powder is not a big deal,
but common sense should prevail. It
should be stored in a cool place, with
no risk of exposure to open flames
and stashed far away from children.

I store my powder in a wooden box,
clearly labeled, with a lockable lid.
You never want to store powder in
a container that will contain pres¬
sure; in the event of a fire, powder
that is not under
pressure will burn
rapidly, but, put
it under pressure
and you’ve made
a bomb. Always
store powder in

Alliant Reloder
25 is a very
slow-burning
powder designed
for magnum
cartridges.

36 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

The very versatile
IMR4064 powder.

its original canister and never try
to relabel another container. I mark
the date of purchase and the date I
opened the canister, so as to use the
powder in the order in which it was
purchased.

Choosing a powder can be time
consuming. Reloading manuals offer
several selections per cartridge/bul¬
let combination and will sometimes
highlight or recommend the powder
that worked best in their test rifle or
pistol. Every barrel is different, and
while the most accurate load in the
manual may work perfectly fine in
your firearm, sometimes you need
to experiment. Too, you will inevi¬
tably end up owning more than one
manual, but start with just one.

Some powders can be used in
many different applications. For ex¬
ample, I use Unique and TiteGroup in
many different pistol cartridges, from
9mm Luger to .45 Long Colt. Now,
the .308 Winchester rifle cartridge
is the first round I learned to reload.
My dad, GP, insisted that a 165-grain
bullet on top of IMR4064 was the
only way to go, and anything else
was near blasphemy. In his world, at
that time, there was no other powder
(or cartridge, for that matter). I have
used IMR4064 (because we had a
ton of it) in .22-250 Remington,

.243 Winchester, 6.5x55 Swedish,

.270 Winchester, 7x57 Mauser, .308
Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, .300
Winchester Magnum, .375 H&H
Magnum, and my sweetheart .416
Remington Magnum. This doesn’t
mean that this is the only powder that
will work, nor the best powder in each
of those cartridges. It just means that
it is a powder that has a wide range of
applications.

Conversely, a single cartridge may
be served well by a large number
of different powders. The venerable
.30-06 Springfield, that classic of
classics, can be fed a wide range of
powders with a wide range of burn
rates and provide great results across
the board. For example, depending
upon bullet weight, the following
powders are well suited for use in
the .30-06: IMR3031, IMR4064,
IMR4320, IMR4350, IMR4895, and
IMR 7828; Hodgdon Varget, H414,
H380, H4350, and BL-C(2); Alliant
Reloder 15, Reloder 17, Reloder 19,
Reloder 22, Reloder 25, and 4000-
MR; Winchester 748, and 760—you

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 37

get the idea. It may take trying sev¬
eral types of powder before you find
the accuracy you so desire.

THE BULLET

From the earliest days of firearms,
where the smooth lead ball was the
only projectile available up though
the Civil War era of the Minie ball
and on to today’s super-premium,
secant ogive match bullets, the bullet
and only the bullet is what touches
our game or target. Therefore, it
deserves a great deal of attention.

In that little dust-up of the mid-
1770s, the British Army was outshot
by Revolutionaries who had firearms
with rifling. The Brits, of course, had
smoothbore muskets. Our soon-to-be
Americans had embraced the idea
that spinning the projectile made
it easier to hit distant targets; the
smoothbore Brown Bess muskets
often threw lead knuckle balls. Later
in ballistic history, the concept of
the elongated bullet took accuracy to
yet another level. Long, heavy-for-
caliber, cast lead bullets accompanied
frontiersmen across our continent.

A lineup of many different rifle bullet types.

38 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Buffalo hunters made their living
with them.

In the 1880s, as smokeless powder
evolved and pushed rifle velocities to
the region of 2,200 fps or so, the cast
lead bullet had some trouble handling
the pressures. Major Eduard Rubin,
of Switzerland, had the bright idea to
put a harder gilding metal (copper)
on the outside of the bullet, for it to
better take to the rifling and provide
better accuracy at these
new, previously unimag¬
ined speeds—behold, our
modern cup and core bullet

was born! The concept of a copper
jacket filled with a lead core is still
the most popular today, a design
most often seen in the common soft-
point bullet so many of us use.

There are many types and classifi¬
cations of bullets today for rifles and

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 39

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

The classic round-nose bullet.

Hornady’s 170-grain flat-points were designed for the .30-30 WCF.

40 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

tols. As you peruse a bullet catalog,
you will see nomenclature like
round-nose, flat-nose, spitzer, spitzer
boat-tail, hollowpoint, full metal
jacket, and more. Really, the list goes
on and on. Let’s take a look at some
of them.

A round-nose bullet has, you
guessed it, a rounded nose or “me-
plaf ’ (meplat is a fancy word for the
front or nose portion of any bullet).
These bullets usually have quite a bit
of exposed lead at the nose, to provide
good expansion, and are generally
employed for use at shorter distances.

A flat-nose bullet will have a blunt
nose. The rifle variety of these bullets
was designed for the tube magazine
of many lever-action rifles. The flat-
nose concept came about to ensure
that the nose of one bullet couldn’t
pierce the primer of the cartridge in

front of it in the tubular magazine
of lever-actions during recoil from
a fired round, something that can set
off a chain-fire reaction. Today, many
pistol bullets are flat-tipped ,to pro¬
vide a improved frontal diameter to
better transmit energy at the target.

A spitzer is a severely pointed
bullet, one whose name is a de¬
rivative of the German word spitzge-
schoss , which roughly translates to
“pointy bullet.” The pointed end of
the bullet allows it to slice through
the air better, resist slowing down
and, therefore, have a flatter, better
trajectory (we’re going to discuss all
the physics in just a moment).

A pointed bullet whose base
has been angled is called a spitzer
boat-tail. The angled base improves
aerodynamics, so they resist air drag
even more than a regular spitzer.

Traditional flat-based spitzer bullets.

i

1

!

I

t

!

i

1

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 41

The boat-tail on a these bullets helps reduce air drag.

Most long-range match bullets for
rifle competition or other distance
applications are some form of
spitzer boat-tail, be they hollowpoint
or otherwise.

A bullet that has no exposed lead
at the nose is one that’s considered to
have a full metal jacket. The copper
casing completely surrounds the bul¬
let, except at the base. Military rifle
and pistol bullets are mostly of this
type (due to the Hague Convention).

Full metal jacket
pistol bullets.

Many indoor pistol ranges require a
bullet to be totally encapsulated in
copper, so as to minimize the amount
of vaporized lead in the air.

A bullet with a hollow cavity at
the nose is, aptly, a hollowpoint,
and it’s a design created to rapidly
expand upon striking its target. In a
rifle, spitzer hollowpoint bullets can
be wonderfully accurate (although
their fragile construction often
precludes them from being used for
hunting), and can provide the target
shooter with some of the best results.
In a pistol, the hollowpoint configu¬
ration is often used for its terminal
performance as warranted in defen¬
sive situations.

A pistol bullet that is a squared
slug and without a taper to the nose
is called a “wadcutter.” The name is
derived from the wad the bullet cuts
out of a paper target.

A close cousin to the wadcutter
is the semi-wadcutter. This pistol

42 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos this page courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

bullet has the rear portion of the
wadcutter design, but a nose section
tapered slightly to assist in feeding
from a magazine.

Now that we have a handle on the
primary bullet styles, let’s discuss
bullet weight. Within any one caliber
(which, simply stated, is the diameter
of the grooves in the barrel), there
is always a range of bullet weights
to choose from. Let’s use the clas¬
sic .308-inch diameter bullet as an
example. Common .308 bullets range
from 110 grains at the lightest to
250 grains at the heaviest. Since the
diameter of the bullet must remain a
constant, it is, therefore, the length of
the bullet that must change. Within
caliber, the heavier the bullet the
longer it will be. This is described
in the industry
as “sectional

den si tv ” Sec- A fu " metal J acket

density, ^ec (FMJ) rifle bullet,

tional density shown sectioned.

is defined as the ratio of a bullet’s
mass to its cross-sectional area (i.e.,
its caliber). The higher the SD, the
longer the bullet is. This is impor¬
tant to hunters who want to be sure

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 43

These are .357-inch diameter 148-grain wade utters.

their bullet will be heavy enough to
match the game being pursued, so as
to penetrate and make a quick kill. It
is important to target shooters who
want to be sure the bullets will stabi¬
lize (rotate) properly for an accurate,
long-range shot.

A brief explanation of the physi¬
cal effects on the fired bullet and
how those effects can be controlled
through bullet choice is needed here.
Once fired and out the end of the
barrel, the bullet immediately stops
gaining velocity and begins to drop
at the same rate it would if you held
it in your hand and dropped it to the
ground. That is known as “gravita¬
tional acceleration.” The faster the
object is traveling, the further it can
go before contacting the earth; imag¬
ine a small child throwing a baseball
versus a Major League pitcher. When
a cartridge is described as being “flat

shooting,” it is usually achieving
higher than standard velocities. The
bullet of such a cartridge will “shoot
flat,” because it can cover more dis¬
tance before the gravitational pull of
the earth has inflicted its full effect.

Now, there is more than the force
of gravity at work on that poor bul¬
let once it’s sent downrange. The
meplat or nose design of a bullet
has quite an affect on the down-
range performance of that bullet.

Air drag is an awful thing. The more
surface area we try to push down-
range, the greater effect air drag has
on velocity reduction. This is why
spitzer boat-tail bullets have a flatter
trajectory. They slice through the air
more efficiently and resist the effects
of air drag, thereby covering more
ground before nasty old gravity does
its thing. A round-nose or flat-nose
bullet has more surface area for the

44 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

These are 158-grain .357-inch semi-wadcutters.

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 45

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

air to act upon and is, thus, slowed
down faster, so it cannot cover as
much distance before Mr. Gravi¬
tational Pull yanks it down to the
ground. For pistol cartridges, whose
velocities are generally lower, this
effect is minimized, plus the barrel
length of pistols tends to limit them
to shorter ranges, compared to the
barrels of rifles.

To compare and contrast the
various shapes of bullets, ballisti-
cians developed the term “ballistic
coefficient.” This is the measurement
of a bullet’s ability to overcome air
resistance in flight. The higher the
ballistic coefficient, or BC, the more
aerodynamic a bullet will be. If your
hunting shots are all at very long
ranges, a spitzer boat-tail might make
an awful lot of sense. If your shoot¬
ing is done at closer ranges, you’ll
be just fine with a round-nose or
flat-nose bullet. Most rifle shooters
who are serious about accuracy on
paper targets prefer the hollowpoint
spitzer boat-tail bullets in a “match”
configuration, where the design toler¬
ances are kept very tight.

There’s been a trend in cartridge
size and bullet choice that’s really
accelerated recently, but it’s one
that’s really been taking place for
the last 50 years. It’s the concept of
super-magnum rifle cartridges burn¬
ing immense amounts of powder and
attaining unprecedented velocities.
These big cases can make long-range
shooting a bit easier, because the
bullets cover much more distance
before the drop starts. However,
they come at a price. To achieve
these high velocities, we must put up

with the terrible recoil—for every
action there is an equal and opposite
reaction—and muzzle blast. Only
you can decide where the threshold
lies in a cartridge that is the perfect
combination of recoil, flat trajectory,
wise bullet choice, and one you can
handle effectively.

I talked a bit about the basic bullet
styles, but there’s more to a bullet
than just its external profile. In the
hunting world, the construction of
the bullet is very important to the
quick and humane kill we all desire.
The bullet must be suited to the task
at hand and for the velocity at which
it is delivered. Careful planning
and judicious handloading can and
will maximize your hunting trip and
put your smiling face in the trophy
picture. For those of us who pursue
the most common game animal, the
whitetail deer, for instance, the tradi¬
tional cup-and-core soft-point bullet
delivered from a classic cartridge is a
perfectly suitable choice. The bullets
expand well to create a large wound
channel, and because the whitetail
deer is a relatively thin-skinned ani¬
mal, they penetrate into the vital or¬
gans to ensure a quick kill. But, not
all game animal or hunting situations
are the same, of course. Bears, hogs,
kudus, elands, moose, and elk are
just a few of the animals who have
densely corded muscles or gristle
plates that must be penetrated before
a bullet can reach the vital organs. In
the case of the largest game animals,
such as moose, bison, Cape buffalo,
and elephant, the animal’s sheer size
requires a different bullet construc¬
tion, one that will not only kill the

46 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

•So

animal, but also stop it rapidly, so
that no one gets hurt. This is where
the premium bullets come into play.

John Nosier was frustrated by
the performance of traditional cup-
and-core bullets on a large moose
he hunted in the 1940s. As a result,
he pioneered the development of
premium bullets by adding a copper
partition in the middle of the bullet,
something that helped ensure deep
penetration was achieved. The Nosier
Partition became a mainstay in bullet
designs created for hunters, and it is
still used with good effect today. The
Swift A-Frame took the concept one
step further by chemically bonding
the copper jacket to the lead core,
still with the partition inside. It is a
very strong bullet, capable of taking
some of the largest and most danger¬
ous game available.

Randy Brooks, of Barnes Bul¬
lets, decided that the lead core was
altogether unnecessary and made a
solid copper hollowpoint bullet that
expanded into four petals and, so, the
Barnes X bullet was born. There is

no jacket, no core, just a single piece
of metal that expands and penetrates
wonderfully. It has since evolved into
today’s TSX bullet.

Some hunters wanted the accuracy
advantage of the target shooter’s hol¬
lowpoint bullet, but in a configura¬
tion tough enough to effectively take
game. Several companies answered
this demand with the idea of a
polymer tip inserted into a hollow
point bullet that had a thicker jacket.
The Nosier Ballistic Tip is a tradi¬
tional cup-and-core hollowpoint with
a sharp polymer tip and boat-tail.

The Hornady Interbond and Swift
Scirocco have the hollow cavity
and polymer tip, but with the jacket
chemically bonded to the core to
prevent bullet breakup. These, among
others, are wonderfully accurate bul¬
lets that can handle large game.

The hunters of the world’s most dan¬
gerous game, the African elephant, of¬
ten require a bullet known as a “solid.”
Years ago, that meant simply a bullet
that had a round nose and a full metal
jacket. Essentially, they were copper-

THE CARTRIDGE COMPONENTS 47

clad steel with a lead core, a construct
that guarantees penetration through the
2 Vt.- foot-thick honeycombed cranium
of Loxodonta Africana. Today, that
same style bullet is produced, along
with a revised offering, a bullet design
known as the mono-metal solid. These
bullets are usually a round-nosed or
flat-nosed, parallel-sided homogeneous
metal, which will not deform, rivet, or
break up.

On the other end of the spectrum
from the elephant hunter, varmint
hunters want a very accurate, yet
very frangible bullet. Many bullet
companies now offer a special line of
bullets that have very thin jackets and
are specially designed to meet the
varmint hunter’s needs.

Target shooters are accuracy
hounds. They fine-tune their rifles
and pistols and loads to produce the
tightest groups possible. Such am¬
munition must use the finest bullets
available. Since, as we shall see,
consistency is the key to producing
accurate handloads, the bullets for
target shooters must be held to ex¬
tremely tight tolerances. The match-
grade bullet, with very concentric

copper jackets, uniform weights,
and very tight tolerances, are readily
available to the target shooter, in both
rifle and pistol form. Berger Bullets,
with its proprietary J4 jacket, Sierra’s
line of MatchKing bullets, and Hor-
nady’s Match line are just a few of
the projectiles available to the serious
target shooter.

The cast lead bullet that started this
conversation about projectiles is and
will continue to be alive and well. Pis¬
tol shooters find these bullets econom¬
ical, especially when high volumes of
ammunition are to be expended, and
they are readily available in many con¬
figurations. Rifle shooters, primarily
those aficionados of the nineteenth-
century lever-action and single-shot
firearms, love them for their nostalgic
look and performance. The cast lead
bullet requires a bit more attention to
load, but can produce a very satisfying
finished product.

What all this talk about bullet
types and design boils down to is
this: Make sure the bullet you choose
is appropriate for your shooting situ¬
ation. If you do that, you’ll have a
lifetime of success and fun.

48 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

CHAPTER 3

RELOADING TOOLS

N ow that you have an under¬
standing of what a cartridge
is made of, let’s look at
the tools you’ll need to reform and
assemble a cartridge. There’s a long

list of tools available to the reloader;
some are a necessity and some sim¬
ply make life easier. The setup you
choose can be as simple or complex
as you’d like, so long as it is effec¬
tive, and by effective I mean
that whether you’re using
all new components or
brass cases that have been

previously fired, you will
need to be able to control
the dimensions and weights
of the components you are
going to use.

First thing you’re going
to need is a clean, quiet
place, one removed from
distraction, in which to do
your loading. A workbench
with good lighting is what
I prefer. Beyond that, let’s
look at each of the neces¬
sary tools individually.

I RELOADING PRESSES

.§> Your reloading press is
^ the important piece of gear

| used to obtain a leveraged

I

o

1

8 _

1

The Lee Turret press
| that has served the

| author for decades.

RELOADING TOOLS 49

This is a single-stage RCBS Rockchucker.

50 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

An inexpensive Lee “C”-style press.

The strong frame of an “O”-style press.

mechanical advantage, something
that’s needed for resizing brass
from its fired dimensions back to its
original specifications, and also for
properly seating a bullet in a sized
case. Presses come in many shapes
and sizes and are produced by a num¬
ber of companies.

For most of my rifle loading work,
I prefer a “single-stage” press. The
single stage press performs only one
operation of the various reloading
steps each time the handle is worked.
For me, the single-stage allows me
to “feel” the resizing operation and
ensures the bullets are seated the
same way every time. Most single-
stage presses are of the “C”-type or
the “0”-type, named for the shape of
their respective frame. The “C”-type

is usually more inexpensive than an
“0”-type press, and they are not gen¬
erally as strong, because some flex
can occur under high pressure in the
“C”-type designs. Since the “0”-type
press can’t flex, it is much stronger
(and also heavier). I also like the
single-stage press for the manner in
which it seats the primers. This level
of attention can deliver the consis¬
tent results we accuracy hounds are
always yearning for.

There are also “progressive
presses,” which perform multiple
operations every time the handle is
cranked. I really like these for pistol
cartridge loading. Depending on the
model you choose, the cartridges are
de-primed, resized, re-primed, flared,
charged, and a new bullet seated, all

RELOADING TOOLS 51

The simplest reloading setup: The Lee Target Model kit. Requires no press, just a mallet!

in a single press stroke. For the pistol
shooter who likes weekend time at
the range or shoots in competition,
ammunition can be expended rather
quickly, thus the progressive press
can greatly help in replenishing sup¬
plies. In my shop, our RCBS Auto-
2000 progressive press can quickly
generate accurate pistol ammunition.

In addition to progressive presses,
many companies offer a turret press.
While still technically a single-stage
by definition, the top portion of the
press contains a rotating turret, which
can hold three or more reloading dies
at once (we’ll get to dies in a min¬
ute). This turret allows the reloader
to perform three or four operations
without changing the dies, as you
would have to do in a straight-forward
single-stage press. Some folks have
frowned upon the turret press, for hav¬
ing too much play in the turret and not
holding to the tight tolerances found

in a true single-stage press. I have a
Redding T7 turret press that I dearly
love and I can attest to using a Lee
turret press with my dad to load tens
of thousands of very accurate rounds.
To each their own. Whatever press you
choose, make sure it is securely bolted
to your bench, in a comfortable place,
and that you are thoroughly familiar
with its operation before you set your
first case in the first die.

RELOADING DIES

Your reloading dies are the screw-
in tools that reform spent brass into
its proper dimensions, punch out the
spent primer (the process known as
“decapping”), flare the case mouth in
the case of straight-walled cartridges,
and seat the bullet into the case. A
set of dies is specific to the cartridge
you are reloading and, save for a few
pistol cartridges, are not interchange-

52 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

able. Reloading dies are a precisely
machined image of a cartridge’s
specified shape within the tolerances
allowed by SAAMI specifications.

So what happens with the dies?
The first die you’ll use is the resizing

die. The press (using its mechanical
advantage) squeezes the fired brass
into the die and, because brass is a
malleable metal, the steel (or carbide)
die reforms it back into proper shape.
The resizing die also has a centered

RCBS rifle reloading dies.

A dissembled seating die, with dummy round.

RELOADING TOOLS 53

An RCBS three-die set for pistol cartridge reloading.

decapping pin, used to remove the
spent primer, and this pin is located
below the expander ball.

The process of resizing and decap¬
ping works like this. On the upstroke
of the press’ ram (the ram moves up
when you lower the handle of the
press), the brass case is driven up into
the die body and the neck or mouth
portion (depending on whether it is
a bottle-neck cartridge or straight-
walled cartridge), is squeezed down to
a dimension smaller than caliber size.
On the downstroke of the ram (when
you raise the press’ handle back up),
the case is drawn over the expander
ball to open the case neck or mouth to
a dimension of 0.001-inch or 0.002-
inch less than the bullet diameter so
that, when the bullet is seated into the
reformed case, there is proper tension
between the bullet “shank” (its sides)
and the sidewalls of the case.

Next up is the bullet seating die.
This die is used for the final step in
cartridge assembly. It has a depth-
adjustable cup, centered in the die,
that pushes on the bullet’s nose (its
“ogive”) when the ram is raised.

This allows for precise adjustment of
the seating of a bullet into the case.
This die is also capable of installing
a crimp of the case mouth onto the
bullet, to further hold the bullet in
place. Whether or not you want to
put a crimp on a cartridge depends
on the case you are loading and the
situation at hand. Your reloading
manual and the cartridge’s specifica¬
tions should dictate which policy
is correct for your round and load.
For instance, rifle cartridges that are
loaded for use in tubular magazine
lever-action firearms, those that are
heavy recoiling, and most pistol cas¬
es often require either a roll crimp or

54 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

taper crimp. Again, reading the spe¬
cific cartridge requirements listed in
your reloading manual and becoming
thoroughly familiar with these re¬
quirements is of utmost importance.
Finally, note that most bottlenecked
cartridges require a two-die set: there
will be one for full-length resizing
and de-priming and one for bullet
seating. Straight-walled cartridges
require a third die that will flare the
case mouth to receive the new bullet.

There is also a fourth kind of die
known as a neck-sizing die. This is
a special die, one usually reserved
for bolt-action rounds. It resizes only
the neck portion of the cartridge
and is used in lieu of the full-length
resizing die. The rest of the cartridge
is left as a mirror of the bolt-action

rifle’s chamber. The thing to know
if you are going to go this route and
substitute a neck-sizing die for a
full-length sizing die, is that your
reloaded cartridges are usable only in
the bolt-action rifle from which those
cases were originally fired. The bolt-
action and only the bolt-action has
the camming power to seal the cham¬
ber on a neck-sized-only cartridge.
Neck-sized ammunition should never
be fired in any other action type.

There are some specialty die
types, such as small base dies.

These are designed for resizing
brass for military-style autoload¬
ers, and they fully resize the entire
length of the case body. This will
ensure the cartridges feed properly
from the magazine, without jams or

Redding dies
come equipped
with an Allen key
for adjusting and
securing the lock
ring, as well as a
spare decapping
pin, in case the
original breaks.
The box can
even be used as
a loading block!

RELOADING TOOLS 55

chambering issues.

All reloading dies come with a
“lock ring,” to hold the die at the
depth you choose for full-length
resizing and bullet seating. The lock
ring butts up against the top of the
reloading press. Some are held by
tension alone, while others have a
set screw that keeps the lock ring in
place. I prefer a lock ring with a set
screw, to ensure my dies will not eas¬
ily come out of adjustment.

There are many different grades
of reloading dies, some of the most
basic construction and some made to
hold very precise tolerances. Some
are simple while effective, and some
have deluxe features like blued steel
with micrometer adjustments to allow
for very precise tolerances. Like most
things in life, you get what you pay
for, but, with diligence, you can create
very accurate ammunition with some
of the more inexpensive tools. I prefer
Redding and RCBS reloading dies,
but use dies made by many different
companies, including some that were
made by companies that have long
gone by the wayside and are cali¬
brated for obsolete cartridges. As long

as the dies are in good working order,
you can make good ammunition with
them. An occasional cleaning with a
small brush and some good solvent
and a light oiling should see that your
dies give you a lifetime of service.

SHELLHOLDERS

Shellholders are another tool you
will need. These are variously sized
attachments that usually slide into
the mouth of the press’ ram. They
are machined to hold the head of a
particular cartridge and are num¬
bered according to the size of the
case head. Thus, one shellholder will
often fit many different cartridges. It
is very important that you have the
proper shellholder for the cartridge
you are loading, or you can tear off a
rim or stick a case in a resizing die—
not good times!

PRIMING TOOLS

There are two ways to re-prime the
cartridge case, either in a handheld
priming tool or in a priming device
attached to a reloading press. Using

Shellholders
are specifically
made fora
particular case
head dimension.

56 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

I keep my shellholders organized on a board that is well labeled, to cut down the time spent searching
for the proper one.

the handheld primer, the case is
loaded into the device, a new primer
inserted, and a lever is squeezed to
seat the primer into the case. When
the priming tool is attached to the
reloading press, the primer is inserted
into the priming cup and, on the up¬
stroke of the press handle, the primer
is seated into the case.

I most often use a priming tool
attached to my press. It allows for a
more efficient and faster operation
and I can still “feel” the primer seat
to the slightly recessed level I prefer.
Primer seating should be flush to the
case or the little bit deeper I prefer,
but you must be careful about go¬
ing too deep. Your press can create
a whole bunch of force, sometimes
more than you need and something
that will seat your primer too deep in
the case. I have also used handheld
priming tools to great effect. The Ly¬
man and RCBS models in particular

have nice trays that store dozens of
primers. Lee offers a simple and ef¬
fective handheld primer that requires
you to place one primer at a time into
the hand primer. Either way and what-

A Lee handheld priming tool.

RELOADING TOOLS 57

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

ever priming tool you choose, if you
go on to become and avid reloader of
multiple cartridges, sooner or later
you’ll need priming tools in both
Large and Small primer sizes.

POWDER MEASURING TOOLS

Measuring powder is a process
that requires the utmost and serious
attention. An undercharge or over¬

charge can result in destruction and
death. Nope, I’m not trying to scare
you into taking up quilting instead,
just being up front about what can
go wrong. If you take what I say to
heart, the chances of destruction (or
worse) are remote at best. So, with
that in mind, an accurate means of
measuring powder is a necessity.

The traditional method for weigh¬
ing powder and the one I most often

Redding and RCBS beam reloading scales.

58 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

The RCBS ChargeMaster 1500 electronic scale.

RELOADING TOOLS 59

employ is via the beam scale. It is
capable of measuring weights down to
a tenth of a grain. Gravity never wears
out, and a well-calibrated beam scale
will become an old friend. My RCBS
505 scale has been with me for a long
time and it a great value. I also love the
Redding Model No. 2 for its ultra-du¬
rable construction. I highly doubt you
would wear out the hardened chrome
bearing surfaces in a lifetime of load¬
ing. Whatever make or model you
choose, a set of calibrating weights can
help to keep things in working order.

There are also many good digital
scales. They display to the nearest
tenth of a grain and can be easily
calibrated. But, because they work
on piezo pressure, rather than true
gravitational weight, digital scales tend
to need to be zeroed often. I have an
RCBS ChargeMaster that is among the
best of the digital scales, and though I
verify its reading often with a reweigh
on a balance beam scale, it has yet to
give me an erroneous reading. One
benefit of any scale you choose is
that it can also be used to weigh your
bullets, should you choose to pursue a
higher level of accuracy.

Should you decide to purchase a
mechanical powder dispenser—there
are both mechanical dispensers and
hand “tricklers” that allow you to con¬
trol the finest increments of a powder
charge—to make the loading process
quicker, the powder scale should be
used to check the charge being dis¬
pensed at frequent intervals, in order
to avoid a charge that is too light or
too heavy. Check and check often is a
good mantra no matter what measur¬
ing tools you use.

CASE TRIMMERS

Another tool you will need is
a “case trimmer.” Brass is mal¬
leable and, over repeated firings, will
stretch or “flow.” When the cartridge
case becomes too long, it must be
trimmed back to the proper length. It
is crucial that the brass you intend to
load be trimmed to the correct, speci¬
fied length.

Trimming the brass is an impor¬
tant step in making good ammuni¬
tion. It ensures the proper dimensions
of a reloaded cartridge. Some case
trimmers are a hand-cranked affair,
the device bolted down to the reload¬
ing bench and carefully set to the
proper measured length. Others are a
machined tool of specific length and
diameter, screwed into a cutting piece

An RCBS motorized trimmer.

60 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Using a micrometer to measure a completed cartridge.

and inserted into the case to then trim
it to proper length. Several flicks of
the wrist will do the trick. There are
also some great motorized trimmers,
like the RCBS Case Preparation Sta¬
tion, which can be fine-tuned to trim
to very precise dimensions and take
the wear and tear off of your hands
and wrists. They cost a bit more than
the hand-powered models, but, if you
get the loading bug (and you will!)
they save an appreciable amount of
time and give wonderful results.

Being able to observe the dimen¬
sions of your resized case is necessary.
A micrometer is a precise measuring
tool designed to measure in inches
and decimal portions of an inch. Case
length, cartridge overall length (COL
for short), neck diameter, and rim
diameter are a few of the dimensions
you will want to be able to verify.

A micrometer capable of measur¬
ing to the ten-thousandth of an inch
is what you want to own. Before the
digital age dawned, micrometers used
a dial to represent the measurement.
Today, there are plenty of microm¬
eters with digital readouts. Some are
of plastic construction and others
are of metal. I prefer the metal type,
as they have less room for play and
maladjustment. Please don’t skimp
on the micrometer, you’ll use it
more often than you think. As your
handloading techniques become more
intricate, you’ll rely on the microm¬
eter more and more.

CHAMFER/DEBURRING TOOL

The chamfer/deburring tool is a
little brass cutting wonder designed
to remove any burrs on the inside and
outside of the case mouth, while, at the

RELOADING TOOLS 61

same time, putting a nice, beveled edge
on the inside of the case mouth. This
bevel is referred to as a “chamfer.” The
chamfer tool has a tapering diameter,
so as to be used in case mouths from
.17-inch to .500-inch or bigger.

A few twists will clean up the
outside of a burred case mouth easily.

A clean, well-chamfered and -deburred
case mouth will aid in seating the
new bullet and in the chambering of a
cartridge. There are handheld models
that work very well, but they can give
you blisters and sore wrists, if you’re
loading a lot at one time. Some models
mount to motor-driven case prep
stations and not only speed up the pro¬
cess, but save hand fatigue. The cham¬
fer process is usually only necessary on
bottlenecked cases, but I like to deburr
all my cases, including the straight-
walled rifle and pistol cartridges.

PRIMER POCKET CLEANER

The primer pocket cleaner is a
steel scraping tool that removes the
burnt residue left behind by the fired
primer that was in residence before
you decapped your case. Many of
these cleaners are dual-sided, with
one side for large primer pockets and
the other for small. Some other mod¬
els are constructed of small steel wire
brushes, which will clean the pocket
in a rotary action, rather than scrape
the debris away. Cleaning the primer
pocket will ensure that the spark of
the new primer can easily reach the
fresh powder charge and help to see
the new primer is properly seated.

CASE CLEANING
TUMBLER TOOLS

Brass is a malleable metal, yet tar¬
nishes very easily. It must be cleaned

62 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

A two-sided pocket cleaner takes care of work on both large and small primer pockets.

A Lyman Turbo 600 vibratory cleaner.

before being resized, to make
sure your resizing dies give
you a lifetime of good service.
Using an abrasive media, such
as ground corncobs or crushed
walnut shells, the case tumbler
vibrates a load of dirty brass
in its vessel until that brass is
once again shiny and clean.
There are also many chemical
solutions that can hasten the
brass cleaning process, and I
often use these in conjunction
with corncob or walnut media.
Tumblers come in a variety of
sizes, with some capable of
holding up to 1,000 pistol cases
at a time. The type of reloading
you intend to do should dictate
the size tumbler you require.

There are ultra-sonic clean¬
ers available, like the Lyman
Turbo Sonic Cleaner, which

RELOADING TOOLS 63

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

The ultrasonic
cleaner can
save time and
clean your
cases both
inside and out

vibrate the cases in a solution. These
work much faster than traditional
media tumblers. The big thing I like
about cleaning ultrasonically is the
way these machines clean the inside
of the brass cases. Having the inside
of the case cleaned can greatly affect
the accuracy potential of your cases,
in a good way, as the case volume
becomes more uniform when the
burnt residue from the previous firing
is removed from fired cases. An added
benefit to ultrasonic cleaners is that
they can also be used to periodically
remove the grit, brass, lube, and other
accumulated dirt from your reloading
dies. (You’d be shocked to see what
comes out of them!) I found a chemi¬
cal cleaning solution available from
Iosso, which removes almost all the
residue from your dirty brass. The kit
comes with a cheesecloth-style pouch.

You place the dirty brass in the pouch,
dunk it in the chemical cleaner for 20
to 60 seconds, and then rinse in clean
water. Simple, easy, and effective,
though I’d recommend a light tum¬
bling after any chemical or ultra-sonic
cleaning, to put a nice shine on your
cases. Neatness counts.

CASE LUBE

Before squeezing a fired case into
a reloading die, that case must be
lubricated. If not, you risk having the
case getting wedged in the resizing
die during the process. Case lubricants
come in waxes, sprays, gels, etc. Lots
of options. Most gels and sprays are
required if you choose to use a lube
pad, a sponge-like material upon
which the cases are rolled, the lube in
the pad thereby evenly dispersing it-

64 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

RCBS Case Lube and Lube Pad.

self on the entire case. This process of
lubrication is a fickle thing. Too much
lubricant and you will have hydrau¬
lic dents in the shoulder section of a
bottlenecked case. Too little will result
in a stuck case. I have always used the
RCBS Case Lube and a lube pad. I
know how much to use, and the lube
comes off the cases rather easily, with
just a light wiping after sizing. It will
take a bit of practice and experience
to judge the proper amount of lube,
when you’re first learning to load.
Nonetheless, it is a necessary step in
the resizing process.

CASE BRUSH

These little gems, of varying
calibers, will help remove any excess
lube or media from inside the case
neck of your clean cases. They’re
kind of self-explanatory.

CASE LOADING BLOCKS

Case loading blocks can be a great
aid. They are designed to hold the
cartridges you are loading, simple as

A Tipton case brush.

RELOADING TOOLS 65

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Loading blocks prevent
cases from rolling all
around, especially

under your bench!

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro
Media Group &
J.D. Fielding Photography)

that. Case blocks are a small platform
or tray in which holes have been
drilled or formed to a specific rim
diameter, so that the cases don’t fall
over or roll off the reloading bench.
They can be made of pre-formed
plastic, or you may make your own
by drilling properly sized holes into a
wood block.

FLASH HOLE REAMER

The flash hole is the only means
of getting the primer’s flame into the
powder charge. While most of today’s
cases are manufactured to high
tolerances, sometimes small burrs or
slightly out-of-round flash holes ap¬
pear. A reamer or a drill bit of exact
flash hole diameter (0.08-inch) can
clean up the flash hole and make sure
you get consistent ignition.

POWDER FUNNEL

Once the powder charge has been
weighed, getting it into the case
requires a funnel. I like a qual¬
ity plastic funnel that resists static
electricity. Such a funnel eliminates
any powder clinging to the funnel
walls. Most of the common funnels
are dimensioned for use in cases
of .22-caliber through .45-caliber,
though there are specialty fun¬
nels, too. Loading the diminutive
.17 Remington (as Col. Le Frogg
has me load so often), requires a
special funnel with a smaller hole
in the end, to make sure the pow¬
der doesn’t spill out around the
mouth of the tiny case. If you load
any of big .470s or .500s, you will
need a bigger-mouthed funnel.

Some cases, such as the Winchester
Short Magnums and Remington

66 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Ultra Magnums, have a very sharp
shoulder and short neck, so the most
common funnels available will give
you headache. Because of the length
of the common funnel’s mouth, pow¬
der can spill around the cartridge
shoulder. Years ago, after spilling
powder all over the bench, GP and
I customized a standard funnel we
nicknamed “Stumpy,” by cutting the
funnel mouth length down until we
had no spillage. Today, these funnels
are available for purchase, properly
sized for the aforementioned cases.

POWDER THROWER

A powder thrower is a dispenser
of powder. It uses a large plastic vial
to hold the store of powder and has a
mechanism to throw a predetermined,
measured amount of powder. The

hand-operated variety works like this:
On the up crank of the handle, the
adjustable chamber is filled with pow¬
der; on the down crank, that charge is
dispensed out of the lower tube and
onto the pan of the scale.

The electronic age has seen the
development of automated powder
measurers with digital displays.

The operator punches in the desired
charge weight and, via an electronic
motor, the machine dispenses the
powder onto a digital scale until the
exact amount has been poured out. I
do appreciate and use the digitized
devices, but I am still a fan of hand-
weighed charges and beam scales.

The Redding Model No. 3 powder
measure and the RCBS UniFlow pow¬
der measure are a couple of my favorite
models, as they are easy to use and
throw a very accurate amount of pow-

RELOADING TOOLS 67

rwM

An RCBS UniFlow Powder Measure.

68 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

der. The Redding LR-1000 is designed
for the shooter who loads powder
charges upwards of 100 grains, and it
can be a great asset to the shooter who
is loading for the big safari magnums
or something like the .338 Lapua. It

sure beats scooping out 100-plus grains
of powder for each case!

POWDER TRICKLER

I mentioned a powder trickier

before, but here’s more on
what this tool does. While
weighing powder charges,
whether you scoop the
powder out or use a powder
measure to throw powder
onto the scale’s pan, you
will need to add in that last
little bit to make the charge
weight perfect. This is where
the powder trickier comes in.
Shaped a bit like an hour¬
glass, it has a longitudinal
tube threaded like a worm
screw, which delivers small
amounts of powder when
you twist the knob. The
last few tenths of a grain
are precisely delivered into
the pan. I have a well-worn
RCBS powder trickier that
has served me very well for
more than 20 years.

PRIMER TRAY

Primer trays are de¬
signed to hold the primers
you intend to seat in the
cases. A handy tool like
this eliminates the awful
chore of picking up prim¬
ers off the floor on hands
and knees once you’ve
dropped them. I’ve done it
and, inevitably, you will,

A Redding LR-1000 powder measure.

RELOADING TOOLS 69

An RCBS Primer Tray.

Note that not every pow¬
der that can perform well

too. There are better ways to pass the
time than searching under the bench
for the last three or four lost primers,
so the cost of these simple trays is a
worthwhile investment.

RELOADING MANUALS

I use the plural in this title
because, sooner or later, you will
need more than one. Nearly all the
manufacturers of component bullets
and/or powder offer a reloading
manual for sale; for those
produced by bullet makers,
those manuals are specific
to each company’s bullets.
The loads are developed and
researched on high-tech pres¬
sure testing machines, using
a variety of powders that
are viable with a particular
cartridge. Such data can tell
you which powder performed
best during the company’s
testing and provide you with
the velocities obtained in

The RCBS

Powder

Trickier.

the test rifle. Each cartridge
covered usually comes with
a brief history, and some will
provide some helpful loading
instructions.

70 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

a must.

is tested by every company. Most
often, the ballisticians choose what
they feel are the powders that should
perform well in a given case and test
those. This can pose a problem, if
you have a great quantity of a pow¬
der that you like, yet the Whiz-Bang
Bullet Company’s manual didn’t
test its new 154-grain polymer-tip-
bonded-core-blessed-by-the-gods-
boat-tail bullet with that powder
you so love. If you have a different
manual that provides load data with
a comparably shaped projectile of
the same exact weight, you can
use the starting load and carefully
increase the charge, looking for the
first slight sign of pressure and stop¬

ping your shooting immediately if
it occurs. The same idea applies to
older versions of annual and semi¬
annual manuals. They are well worth
keeping around, because they can
provide data for powders that are no
longer produced, but that you still
have a supply of (and is still safe
to shoot). I have found several very
accurate loads hiding within manu¬
als that are older than I. Personally,

I hoard them for their inherent value
and actually enjoy reading them (this
might be a touch of geekdom) for
the insight they provide. They are
also a valuable source of loading
data for cartridges that have or will
become obsolete.

RELOADING TOOLS 71

When you pick a bullet and
powder charge for the cartridge
you intend to load, compare the test
firearm data to the firearm you are
loading for. The difference between
the barrel length of the test gun and
your gun may result in a change in
the velocity you receive from the
published data. I load many differ¬
ent types and makes of bullets, so I
like to have as many of the differ¬
ent company manuals on hand as I
can, be they in hard copy or digital
form. Whether you start with just
one manual that satisfies your needs
for loading just one or two different
calibers or you opt for several, I’ll
reiterate, read the manual for the
cartridge/bullet combination you
choose and be sure to double-check
it during your loading session.

We’re lucky to be reloading in the
twenty-first century. In addition to
the hard copy books, most companies
that produce bullets and/or powder
provide a wealth of reloading data on
their websites. Not every bullet/case/

powder combination is tested, but
the data provided can be invaluable.

I often consult the information on
these websites in conjunction with the
printed manuals, either as an alternate
source of loading data or to confirm
the loads printed in the manual.

ODDS AND ENDS

While what you’ve just read cov¬
ers the necessities, there are many
additional tools that can make life
on the reloading bench easier. Pli¬
ers both regular and needle nosed,
screwdrivers, wrenches, Allen keys,
and other common tools come in
handy for adjusting presses and dies.
Small brushes are great for clean¬
ing away the little bits of brass that
accumulate on the press or to clean
up a spill of spent primers. Blank
stickers are great for labeling your
stores of brass and finished boxes of
ammunition. Plastic boxes for car¬
tridge storage and for storing tools
and other accoutrement should also

72 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Lapua cases
comfortably
nestled in an
MTM Case-Gard
cartridge case
storage box.

come in handy. Construction date,
charge, bullet, etc., labeled on the
cartridge box will help keep things
well organized.

DATA NOTEBOOKS

A means of keeping an accurate
record of your loading trials and er¬
rors, successes, and overall results is
very important. I use two methods. I
keep my very precious notebook, in
which I describe all the load data and
notes regarding each load, so that I
may replicate it at any point in time,

and I also keep an “.xl” file on my
computer, along with a well-orga¬
nized backup version of my load¬
ing data. This recorded data should
include the cartridge, brand of case,
number of firings through that case,
the bullet make, model, and weight,
the primer used, the type of powder
and charge weight, and the cartridge
overall length (COL). Guard your
loading notes well, for they are ir¬
replaceable and represent the only
record of all your hard work.

RELOADING TOOLS 73

Keeping accurate records is a must in reloading.

Now that we’ve discussed the tools
for cartridge construction, let’s cover
the “erasers,” those tools that can undo
the mistakes we all make along the way.

STUCK CASE REMOVER

Sooner or later, it will happen to
you. A case too lightly lubed will
stick in a resizing die and, on the
down stroke of the press arm, the rim
of the case will rip off. This immedi¬
ately ends your reloading session.

The stuck case remover can heal
your woes. It is a simple tool set, but
with it you can drill and tap a large
hole through the flash hole and web
of the case. Then, using a large screw,
the tool draws the case out of the
sizing die.

A quick tip for use with this tool.
Be sure to back the expander ball

and rod all the way out of the die,
or as far as possible, so the drill bit
doesn’t break the decapping pin or
damage the expander ball when it
drills through the cartridge’s web.

I’ve forgotten to do this and broken
the pin and damaged the ball to the
point where I’ve had to order a new
one. Talk about ending your reload¬
ing session. Sheesh.

BULLET PULLER

Let’s say you’ve seated your bullet
too deep in the case or, worse, forgot¬
ten to install a primer into a case in
which you’ve charged and seated
a bullet. What now, throw it away?
Nope, not at all. The bullet puller
erases this mistake in short order.

There are two common types of
bullet pullers: The inertia-hammer and

74 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Using the case remover to back out a stuck case.

RELOADING TOOLS 75

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

An RCBS collet-style bullet puller.

the press-mounted model. The ham¬
mer model looks like a hammer, with
a screw cap on the rear portion. An
appropriate collet is placed around the
cartridge rim, the cap screwed back on,
and you swing the hammer down onto
a block of wood. A couple swings later
and the bullet pops out, along with
the powder. The press-mounted model

uses a collet in the same location
where you would screw in a reloading
die. The collet bites on the bullet and
the down stroke of the press separates
bullet from case. Voila! You’re back in
business! You may not be able to reuse
the bullet, and you may need to resize
the case, but it’s better than wasting all
the components.

76 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

CHAPTER 4

CASE WORK

O kay, folks, there you are

with all these fancy reload¬
ing tools and a happy pile of
spent brass on you reloading bench.
Now is the time to use those tools
to turn that brass into clean, shiny,
reformed cases suitable for loading.
Habits, be they good or bad, are eas¬
ily formed, so let’s form good ones.
Are you ready? Let’s go!

Rigorous case inspection is a must

CASE INSPECTION

The first and easiest part of the
program is the initial visual inspec¬
tion of each case. I primarily check
all the case heads, to make sure I am
using and cleaning only one particular
caliber at a time. It’s not hard to mix
up .308 Winchester with 7mm-08
Remington, a .38 Special with a .357
Magnum, a .30-30 WCF with a .32
Winchester Special, or a .25-06 Rem¬
ington with a .270 Winchester, and the
reloading dies sure won’t like it if you
screw this up. A quick glance at the
inscription on the head of the cases
will solve this problem.

At this point, go ahead and also
inspect the cartridge head. A bent
or damaged rim can cause a case to
become stuck in the shell holder or,
worse, jammed in a firearm. Those with
damaged rims should be discarded.

Your cases will be cleaned to
remove any minor surface corro¬
sion, but any severely corroded cases
should not be used. A ruptured case
can be the result of loading a case
that has become too thin, due to
excess corrosion. The case neck can
often split, either in a line parallel
with the case body or perpendicular
to it; sometimes, excessive pressure
will cause a split in the case body. A
magnifying glass and good lighting

CASEWORK 77

Crushing a case that is unusable prevents it from making it back into the “good brass” pile.

will reveal these slight cracks. Destroy
and discard any split case. Brass cases
can be reused several times, but, at the
first sign of an unsafe situation, they
should be destroyed and discarded.
When I find cases that are unsuitable
for use, I crush the case mouths closed
with a pair of pliers and toss it into the
metal recycle bin, so that they have no
chance of being reused.

Some cases have stretched too
much from repeated firings. When
this happens, they develop a very
bright ring near the web of the case.
This ring is caused by the case metal
becoming thinner in this area, and it
can result in case head separation.

The case can actually break in two
or partially split, neither of which is

a good thing. A paper clip or other
piece of similar wire, bent to a right
angle at the end, can make a good
“feeler-gauge.” Stick the wire in the
case and, if you feel a detent on the
inside of the case wall in the area of
the shiny ring, do not use that case
any further.

CASE CLEANING

Spent cases can be not only
become tarnished, but downright
dirty. They often fall onto the
ground after being fired and, so,
collect dirt and dust. Burnt powder
residue adds to the gritty mixture.
Either way, cases must be cleaned
to ensure they do not damage the

78 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Once-fired cases in the tumbling media.

resizing die or feed improperly
into your firearm. I use a vibratory
brass cleaner, often referred to as a
tumbler (some cleaners actually do
tumble the brass, while others sim¬
ply vibrate it among the media). The
vibratory cleaner usually consists
of a motor beneath a plastic tub,
though sometimes it’s a belt-driven
tumbling chamber that resembles a
small clothes dryer drum.

To use the tumbler/vibratory
cleaner, cleaning media, such as
ground corncobs or crushed walnut
shells, is dumped into the tub, along
with your dirty brass. Once the lid is
in place, the vibratory or tumbling
action scours the brass cases clean.

A chemical cleanser, like Lyman’s Sifting out the tumbling media.

CASEWORK 79

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Turbo Brite and even good old Bras-
so, can be added to help speed up
the cleaning process. A couple hours
of your brass happily dancing in the
whirlpool of media should have it all
shiny and ready for action.

It is not uncommon for the media
to become packed into the case, when
they’ve been in the tumbler. It is ab¬
solutely necessary to be certain that
all the cleaning media is removed
from the cases. You can sift your
brass around in an old colander, so
that the media can drop through the
holes and back into the tub, or a good
old paper clip can be used to remove

the media from the cases by hand. Ei¬
ther way, the cases must not have any
media or other foreign substances
inside them. Finally, a case brush will
help to loosen any media stuck to the
side of the case walls.

Ultrasonic cleaners cut the clean¬
ing time down considerably. They use
a cleaning solution, often sold as a
concentrate, to clean both the inside
and outside of the cases. Often the
cleaning time is 10 minutes or less,
and these cleaners do a very good job.
I believe the ultrasonic cleaners are
the wave of the future for cleaning
brass. I know my Lyman 2500 model

Turbo Brite works
well with most
cleaning media.

The ultrasonic
cleaners clean
both the outside
and inside of the
brass cases.

80 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Rolling the cases to be resized across a lube pad.

does a great job. I still toss the clean
cases in the tumbler for a brief time
once they’re out of the ultrasonic, to
give them a good polished shine.

Some slight tarnish marks that
are not removed by the cleaning are
acceptable. If you’re a stickler for
having things bright and clean, so be
it, but I’ve shot some very impres¬
sive groups with brass that had my
fingerprints tarnished into them. The
goal is to have clean brass that is
free from dirt or grit, not necessarily
to have a shine good enough to win
a best brass contents on the range. I
usually wipe down all the cases with
a clean rag and reinspect the cleaned
cases as a last step before resizing.

One thing to know is that nickel-
coated cases need not be tumbled.
They require only a simple wiping, to
be sure no grit remains on the cases.
They do need to be lubricated later on
though, (unless you’re using carbide
pistol dies).

LUBRICATION

Brass cases that are to be resized
must first be lubricated, so they can
be worked over the expander ball and
removed from the die without stick¬
ing. The sizing die is really a forcing
cone, and the press has the ability to
really wedge those cases into the die
if there is not enough lubricant pres¬
ent to enable their removal.

Lubricants for cases come in
many forms. Gels, sprays, and
waxes are among the most popular. I
prefer the gel lubricants, like RCBS
Case Lube. The gel is spread evenly
onto a sponge-like lube pad and
then the cartridge cases are rolled
over it. Make sure the lube pad is as
free from dirt and grit as possible,
as such debris can transfer onto the
cases and foul your resizing die.
Spray lubricants come in an aerosol
can and can lubricate a large number
of cases simultaneously. Case wax
can be rubbed onto your fingers

CASEWORK 81

and then applied to cases. I’ve even
heard of some folks using car wax
or shoe polish as a lubricant, but I
can’t verify the results. I recommend
a lubricant from a reputable reload¬
ing supply company.

It will take a bit of experience to
achieve the proper level of lubrica¬
tion. Too much and you will hydrau¬
lically dent the cases. Too little and
you will get the case stuck in the
die. Don’t forget to add a very small
bit of lubricant to the case mouth.
Also note that your resizing die may
have a vent hole that allows trapped
air and excess lubricant to escape
during the resizing process. Make
sure this hole is free from obstruc¬
tion so that the die will function
properly. A paper clip end seems to
fit well and makes a good cleaning
tool for this vent.

Dies come in steel and carbide
(and some aluminum). You will
most likely start out with steel, and

that’s the type of die most bottleneck
cartridges require. For most pistol
cartridges, however, tungsten carbide
dies are where most reloaders tend
to lean. These dies usually don’t
require a lubricant to resize the cases.
It should be noted that carbide dies
are designed to be used without the
“cam-over” (which we’ll talk about
in the next chapter), and should be
set up to just make contact with the
shellholder. The carbide insert is also
more brittle than traditional steel
or aluminum dies, so take care not
to drop them onto hard surfaces, as
they may shatter. You should read the
manufacturer’s specifications, if you
choose to use carbide dies, and fol¬
low them to the letter.

RESIZING AND DEPRIMING

It is now time to start using the
press and dies, even though, at this
point, you’re not reloading. Rather,

A disassembled resizing die, showing the expander ball and decapping pin.

82 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

these next steps are actually a continu¬
ation of the case preparation process.

Your press should be securely
bolted to the bench and you should
have the following tools assembled:
reloading dies and the necessary
tools to adjust them; proper shell-
holder for the cartridge you’re
reloading; case lubricant; and your
pile of spent brass. I like to neatly
place the brass to be resized into a
loading block.

Before I install the resizing die,

I unscrew the rod that holds the ex¬
pander ball and decapping pin. Take
the expander ball portion of the die
and remove any of the rust inhibi-
tive material used for shipping, then
lightly lubricate it. Reinstall the rod
and lower the decapping pin within
the die body until it protrudes from
the bottom portion of the resizing
die somewhere between 3 /i 6 -inch
and a %-inch. This is far enough
below the bottom of the die for it to
reach through the case’s flash hole
and push out the spent primer. If the
decapping pin extends any further
than this, the case web may damage
the expander ball during resizing. A
few cartridges, such as the .22 Hor¬
net, require a lesser amount of the
decapping pin be exposed. With your
decapping pin set, slide a shellholder
of the proper size for your cartridge
into the ram of the press, at the slot
at the top of the ram.

The next step is to set up the
resizing die to function properly. Be
certain to read and re-read the in¬
structions that come with your brand
of reloading dies, for proper resizing
adjustment. The die will have several

thread-adjustable parts. The depth
of the decapping pin is adjustable,
as you’ve just seen, as is the overall
depth of the die itself. To make your
adjustment, the press’ ram should be
fully extended upward, with the shell-
holder inserted in place. Next, the
resizing die should be screwed down
until it firmly meets the shellholder.
Depending on the manufacturer of
the dies you chose, this may suffice
for full-length resizing.

Every resizing die and press is a
little different. RCBS recommends
that once the ram is fully extended
upward and contact is made with the
shellholder, the ram is then lowered
and the die screwed down another
quarter-turn. This will force the press
to squeeze the case fully into the
die body, resulting in a full-length
resizing of the shell. Redding dies
require that the die body just touch

Unsightly hydraulic dents in the shoulder portion
of these .308 cases show signs of using too
much case lube.

CASEWORK 83

Annealed Hornady brass, showing the annealing marks created during the manufacture of the new case.

the shellholder. It is very important
to read the literature provided with
your particular die set and follow that
company’s procedures to the letter.

Lower the ram all the way down
and slide a lubricated case into the
shellholder. Lever the press’ handle
down, lifting the ram and driving
the case up into the die. Expect to
meet some resistance as the case is
returned to its original size, just as
it was before firing. With the case
firmly up in the die, the spent primer
should now pop out of the primer
pocket. Raise the press’ lever and, on
the down stroke of the ram, the case
neck or mouth is now drawn over
the die’s expander ball to return it to
caliber diameter.

If all went well and the die was set
up properly, your case should now be
resized. Still, this is your first case,
and there are a few common prob¬
lems that should be covered here and
should be corrected.

If you’re resizing a bottlenecked
cartridge and, upon removal from
the resizing die, you see little dents
in the shoulder area of the case, you
have over-lubricated the case. These
dents are called “hydraulic dents,”
and they are a result of the lubricant
having no means of escape from
within the die. If the dents are not
severe, they will “shoot out” upon the
next loading and firing, as the case
will be forced once again to expand
to the size of the firearm’s chamber.
They are unsightly, but not necessari¬
ly dangerous, unless you are working
near maximum pressures—which you
should not be, as a new reloader. If
you have any doubt, do not load these
cases again.

Cases that have been previously
fired will certainly need the resizing
procedure described above, but I also
give the same treatment to new brass.
Often times, new cases will have
dented case mouths, that damage

84 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

incurred during the shipping process,
so these new cases can benefit from
being resized and then trimmed to a
uniform overall length. Now, if you
receive your new cases, especially
bottlenecked rifle cases, and you
notice a rainbow hue to them, espe¬
cially in the region of the mouth and
the neck, do not fear. This is a sign
of annealing during the manufacture
of the case, rather than the sign of
an over-pressure load that you would
see in previously fired brass. Anneal¬
ing of brass is the process of rapidly
heating the metal to soften it. Brass,
when worked by hand, becomes
brittle, yet, when heated and cooled,
it becomes softer. Some compa¬
nies, like Hornady, will anneal their
unprimed cases to give the longest
case life possible. Annealing your
own brass is a tedious process and
beyond the scope of this book, but

do not fear the slight discoloration of
good annealed new brass.

Finally, if you press a case up into
the resizing die and are unable to re¬
move it or, even worse, rip off the rim
portion, you’ll need some help. The
removal of the stuck case is covered
in a later chapter.

Okay, let’s say you got through
your first round of brass resizing
problem free. At this stage, I reinspect
the cases, looking for neck cracks and
other problems. Destroy and discard
any that are not satisfactory.

NECK SIZING

This process, in which only the
neck portion of the case is resized,
is usually reserved for reloads being
used in bolt-action rifles. Neck sizing
only works when preparing ammu¬
nition for the rifle in which it was

CASEWORK 85

Lever-action rifles lack the camming power to close the action completely on neck-sized ammunition.
The practice of neck-sizing only should be reserved for brass to be used in bolt-action rifles only, and
only the rifle from which the brass was obtained in the first place.

previously fired. Because they are
not fully resized, meaning the body
of the case is still a perfect reflec¬
tion of the chamber of the rifle it
was fired in, these neck-sized cases
are usable only in the rifle in which
they were fired, i.e., they may not be
used in any other rifle of the same
chambering.

The process of neck sizing is
rather simple, because only the neck
area (or a portion of the neck area) of
the case is resized to hold the bullet,
while the shoulder and case body are
left alone. The logic in this is that the
case body has been custom-formed
to its rifle’s chamber and, so, by not
resizing this portion of the case and,
instead, leaving it as a “fire formed,”
mirror reflection of its rifle’s chamber,
upon chambering as a reload, that

case will provide tighter tolerances
and, therefore, better accuracy.

If you are a bolt-action rifle shoot¬
er and choose to only neck resize,
enough of the neck should be sized
to provide good bullet tension within
the case neck. A special neck-sizing
die is usually used for this function,
although a full-length resizing die
can be backed out of the press by
one turn or so to achieve a similar
result. Your goal is leave the body
and shoulder area alone, and it may
take some experimentation with your
dies to do just that (and, so, you can
see why a dedicated neck-sizing die
saves some of this hassle). I’d like to
note once again that only bolt-action
rifles have the ability to “cam” the
chamber closed; slide-action, lever-
action, and semi-automatic rifles do

86 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

not have this ability. Also know that,
with neck-sized ammunition, upon
loading the cartridge and closing the
bolt, you will probably meet more
resistance than you would on a new
or fully resized cartridge. That’s the
improved tolerances you are feeling.

When lubricating the brass for a
neck-sizing die, only the neck portion
of the case needs be lubricated. A
properly set up neck-sizing die will
not make contact with any other por¬
tion of the case.

CLEANING THE PRIMER POCKET

Now your cases are resized and
their spent primers are pushed out,
so it’s time to pay attention to the
primer pocket now that it’s exposed.
You should see some of the burnt
residue from the fired primer in the
primer pocket. With a few twists of
the wrist, the primer pocket cleaner

will scrape out that residue and allow
the new primer to be seated in a clean
environment.

The flash hole should now be
inspected to assure that no debris
or cleaning media has been lodged
within it. I use a small drill bit of the
same diameter as the flash hole to
remove any slight burrs, but make
sure you don’t enlarge the flash hole
when you perform this task. A clean
and uniform flash hole will give a
constant ignition, getting us one step
closer to good accuracy.

TRIMMING THE BRASS

Every cartridge has an established
case length, as defined by SAAMI.
Your reloading manual will tell you
this measurement, and it is important
to have your cases meet this value.
Brass tends to flow or stretch upon
firing, and the first place you will

A clean primer pocket is an absolute necessity.

CASEWORK 87

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

notice it is in the length of the case.
Your micrometer will allow you to
accurately measure the cases, and any
that are longer than acceptable length
must be trimmed down.

A bench-mounted rotary case trim¬
mer can be set to the desired length
and the cases then trimmed down.

The Lee Company makes a neat little
device using a universal cutter and a

Using a micrometer to measure your trimmed brass will give the best degree of accuracy.

Lee makes a very sensible tool that quickly provides well-trimmed brass.

88 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

steel length gauge that features a pin
that slides through the flash hole. The
length of the steel gauge is in accor¬
dance with the SAAMI specification.
The case rim is held in place by a
shellholder-type clamp. You can trim
by hand or insert the shellholder into
a portable drill and trim your brass to
the proper length. These steel gauges
are cartridge specific, so you’ll need
one for each cartridge you intend to
load. The bench-mounted trimmers,
whether hand-crank or electric motor-
driven, are a bit more universal in
their application.

Once the cases are all trimmed to
the proper length, the chamfer/de-
burring tool is used to smooth out the
inside and outside of the case mouth.
This tool cuts the brass a bit, leaving
a cleanly shaped case mouth for the
bullet to be seated into. Finally, the
case brush is used one more time, to
remove any small pieces of trimmed
brass from the neck of the case.

Now, there are several newfangled
gadgets that do many of these steps at
once. As an example, the RCBS Case
Preparation Station is a rotary, elec¬
tric motor-driven tool that takes care
of the trimming, primer pocket clean¬
ing, and chamfering in one concise
unit. The trimming portion is adjust¬
able via two set screws and a microm¬
eter and is capable of trimming the
brass to very precise dimensions. The
spring-loaded shellholder will hold
cases of any and all case head dimen¬
sions, and the cutter face will see
that all the case mouths are trimmed
squarely. Then, on the top of the unit,
six rotary attachments help with the
remaining steps. There are stainless
steel brushes in both large and small
primer pocket sizes that spin away to
clean the dirty primer pockets of your
cases. Next, the rotating chamfer/de-
burring tool awaits the case mouth of
your sparkly clean cases and removes
any and all burrs there to ensure

The inside of the case mouth should be chamfered, for smooth bullet seating.

CASEWORK 89

Make sure there are no rough brass edges on the case mouth after trimming.

The motorized trimmer has many different The rotating steel brush primer pocket cleaner,

caliber pilot sizes, for accurate trimming.

90 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

smooth bullet seating. In a nutshell,
this little device and others like it
can save you many blisters and sore
wrists, while producing well-trimmed
and cleaned cases ready for loading.

Some loading manuals suggest
that you should trim your brass to
a smaller dimension than specified
by SAAMI. This method allows for
the stretching of your brass upon
firing. If this makes sense to you,
that’s fine. I think there are two
potential problems with this trick.

In the bottlenecked cartridge, in
cutting shorter than SAAMI spec,
you are reducing the amount of neck
tension on the bullet. In a straight-
walled cartridge, this shorter trim
will slightly reduce the case capac¬
ity, as you must crimp the bullet on
the case mouth and the overall case

The chamfer tool atop the RCBS Case
Preparation Station.

length will be reduced. Whether or
not this has a dramatic effect on per¬
formance is arguable, but I always
trim my brass to the SAAMI specifi¬
cation. Either way, I recommend you
keep all your brass a single uniform
dimension, so, as you develop your
loads, you don’t change any aspect
of the finished cartridge and keep the
pressures to a safe level.

FLARING THE CASE MOUTH
(STRAIGHT-WALLED CASES ONLY)

Straight-walled cases must be
flared at the case mouth in order
to properly load a bullet into them.
Loading a bullet into a straight-walled
case without the proper amount of
flare often results in a crumpled case.
This is especially true with the full

Deburring the case mouth.

CASEWORK 91

metal jacket bullets so popular with
shooters using indoor ranges for pistol
practice or competition. In fact, the
sharp, square, rear portion of the FMJ
must be seated into a flared case.

The flaring die is the third die
included in most sets of dies for
straight-walled cases. It has a slightly
larger-than-caliber plug in place of
the spot where the decapping pin
would be, which will flare or open the
mouth of the case to a bigger diam¬
eter than the bullet to be loaded. The
flared case may look strange at first,
kind of like a colonial blunderbuss.
Rest assured, upon seating the bullet
in a properly adjusted bullet seating
die, the flared portion of case mouth
will return to its proper dimension.

To flare a straight-wall case, adjust
the flaring plug down within the die

A .38 Special case before flaring.

until you see the case mouth flare no
more than Vie-inch down the case. If
you flare a case too much, it can¬
not be returned to proper dimension
in the seating die. Over-flaring also
results in a diminishing of case life,
as the mouth of the case is worked
too much and, so, will become brittle
prematurely. I flare all the cases I
intend to load at one time and place
them into the loading blocks for the
loading process.

There’s one last step to perform
in your case preparation before you
begin the actual reloading process.

At this stage, I give the cases a good
wiping with a clean rag, to remove
any lubricant or brass filings that may
have adhered to the case.

I would like to note that a progres¬
sive reloading press can perform

The same .38 Special case after flaring.

92 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

From left to right, the case before flaring, the properly flared case, and an over-flared case.

CASEWORK 93

The shellplate and frame of the RCBS Pro2000 Auto Index progressive press.

many of these operations simultane¬
ously. Each stroke of the press’ ram
can perform several operations at
once: resizing, depriming, flaring,
priming, powder charging, bullet
seating, and crimping. There are
usually five different stations to a
progressive press, along with a base
plate that rotates the case around to
each station in the order of reload¬
ing progression. The dies need to be
properly adjusted for this and the
powder dispenser needs to be cali¬
brated to throw the exact amount of
powder required. Primer seating must
be inspected at that particular stage,
to verify that the primers are seated
to the proper depth.

Sounds great, right, getting all
those steps done with one pull of the
lever? It is, to an extent. However, a

progressive press does not afford the
attention to detail that many reload¬
ers both need and enjoy. It is ulti¬
mately up to you to decide whether
the single-stage process, as outlined
above, or the progressive route will
work best for you.

For most of my rifle work and
some of my pistol work, I prefer the
single-stage process. My end results
are often more uniform. I do use a
progressive press for some pistol
calibers, and I like what mine does. It
is a great help when you are shooting
300 to 500 pistol rounds in the course
of a week, but the progressive press
is not perfect. If you do use one,
you should weigh the powder charge
being dispensed every 10 rounds
or so, to be sure it is on the mark.
Progressives also often use a primer

94 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

feed tube to deliver the primers to the
correct position and, if a primer isn’t
fed properly, the risk of primer deto¬
nation is real. One primer exploding
can set off others, and that is a dan¬
gerous proposition. I actually prefer
to use a hand primer, as it gives me
the surety that all primers are seated
to a uniform depth and eliminates the
risk of multiple primer detonation.
Bullet seating depth, explained in
the following chapter, is also an area
to be watched, as is the crimp of the
case mouth. Uniformity is crucial,
especially in a pistol cartridge, where
a deviation of 0.1 or 0.2 grains can

result in excessive pressures. Even
with all those cautions in hand, the
progressives of today, made by Red¬
ding, Dillon, RCBS, and others have
certainly come a long way. Toler¬
ances are tighter and, therefore, the
loaded cartridges are more uniform.
Constant inspection, measuring, and
checking will help avoid any poten¬
tial problems.

The application should dictate the
type of process that will work for
you. Either way, all of the steps out¬
lined above are necessary. Providing
that you followed them, you are now
ready to being the loading process!

CASEWORK 95

CHAPTER 5

PUTTING YOUR
HANDLOAD TOGETHER

Alcohol and
gunpowder
do not mix!

L et’s make some cartridges!

If you’ve followed the steps
in Chapter 4, your cleaned
brass is resized, de-primed, trimmed,
and flared if necessary. It is time to
bring your creation to life (insert mad
scientist maniacal laughter).

The very first thing you need to
do is make sure that only the compo¬
nents you intend to use are on your
reloading bench, to avoid any pos¬
sible mix-ups. Using the wrong type
and/or wrong amount of powder, the
wrong primer, or the wrong caliber

or weight of bullet can create a very
dangerous and sometimes deadly
combination. The loading of am¬
munition requires your undivided
attention and the rules and recipes
must be followed strictly. This means
no cell phones, no TV, no distracting
children, no cigarettes/cigars, and
certainly no alcohol or other forms of
impairing recreation.

Reading the loading notes for
your cartridge in the reloading
manual thoroughly will help you to
understand which components were

96 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

used during testing to arrive at the
published data. While you may be
able to change components once you
become a more experienced reloader
(and know that changing any of the
components in the published recipe
requires you to lower the powder
charge down to the starting weight,
so excessive pressures are not pro¬
duced), as a new reloader, this is not
the time to experiment.

You’re going to assemble your
cartridges in the same order in which
the firing process takes place: primer
to powder to bullet.

PRIMING THE CASE

Using the appropriate type of
primer called for in the reloading
manual and count out the number of
primers you’ll need for the cases you
are going to load. Double-check that
they are the correct type, as Large Ri¬
fle primers are the same size as Large

Priming from the press.

Pistol primers, likewise Small Rifle
and Small Pistol. I place my selected
primer’s in the primer tray, to keep
the little buggers from rolling all over
the bench. Be sure you a using the
correct priming tool size to install the
primers, be they Large or Small.

Hand priming can give a good “feel, ” when it comes to proper primer seating depth.

PUTTING YOUR HANDLOAD TOGETHER 97

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

These .308 Winchester cases in the loading block have been primed and are ready for the next step
in the reloading process.

If you are using the type of prim¬
ing tool that attaches to your press,
insert the correct shellholder into the
ram, place a clean case into it, and
extend the ram upward by lowering
the handle. Place a new primer into
the priming tool, push the priming
tool into the slot in the ram that’s
under the resized case, and lower the
case onto the new primer. If you are
using a handheld priming tool, slide
the case into the shellholder built
into the tool, place a new primer
in the holder, and give the device a
good squeeze.

As much as I use the priming tool
on my press, I would honestly recom¬
mend that you begin with a handheld
primer. You’ll be able to “feel” the
seating better. Too, while the press
gives an enormous mechanical ad¬

vantage, it takes quite a bit of time to
get the consistent results you’re after.

Use just enough force to seat the
new primer into the case either per¬
fectly flush or just slightly recessed.
Be careful, because a primer that is
recessed more than 0.004-inch (see,

I said just slightly) could render the
primer useless, because the anvil
will be crushed. (Your firing pin
might also not make contact with
a primer seated too deeply, even if
that deep seating didn’t crush the
anvil.) I like primers that are seated
flush to the bottom of the rim face,
as there are no worries about protru¬
sion or crushed anvils. You never
want a primer to extend past the
face of the rim. This is a dangerous
situation, as the possibility of an
accidental discharge exists when the

98 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

bolt face closes on the protruding
primer. Checking each primed case
for proper seating depth is a neces¬
sary step. I run my fingernail over
each case after I prime them, then
set them on a piece of Melamine that

Keep only one powder at
a time on your reloading
bench, to avoid any
possibility of confusion.

I have screwed down on my reload¬
ing bench. Any case that does not sit
perfectly on the board or rocks in the
slightest bit is inspected to ensure
that the primer is properly seated. I
prime all the cases I am going to load
at one time during that session and
place them into the loading block,
mouths up, and then move onto the
next step in the reloading process.

If, for some reason, a primer is in¬
stalled incorrectly, you can very, very
gently use the resizing die to push the
primer out of the resized case. You
should safely discard the primer that
was installed incorrectly, rather than
try to reuse it.

CHARGING THE CASE

It is now time to place a new
powder charge into the case. You’ll
need a supply of the powder you
intend to use (remember, only one
type on the bench at a time), a static-
free powder funnel, a powder scale
(either beam or digital), and your

is

slightly out of zero and
should be adjusted.

PUTTING YOUR HANDLOAD TOGETHER 99

reloading manual to confirm you
have the correct powder weight.

Becoming completely familiar
with your powder scale is paramount.
Read and reread the instruction
manual on zeroing and weighing
until you are completely confident
in how to do this. This is the one
reloading tool you don’t want to fail
on you. The results could be deadly.
Have no fear of being overly cautious
regarding your scale. While most
will give you a lifetime of service
without issue, it always pays to check
and recheck.

Once your powder scale is set up,
be sure to zero the scale. This assures
that the powder being measured is
the required amount and not a false
reading. A set of accurately calibrat¬
ed scale weights will help boost your
confidence in the accuracy of your
scale. They are a worthy investment.

Check the zero of the scale every
10 rounds or so when using a beam
scale, more often for a digital scale,
as some of the inexpensive digital
scales tend to drift from zero easily.

If you are using a mechanical
powder dispenser, it must be cali¬
brated to drop the correct amount
of powder. There is usually a set
screw or micrometer that displays the
amount of powder being dispensed.
This is a rough guide, as the dif¬
ferent types of powder—spherical,
stick, etc.—will dispense differently.
With these dispensers, the powder
is dumped into the tray on the scale.
The powder must then be weighed in
order to be sure it is truly an amount
consistent with that required. I like
to set the dispenser to give a bit less
than the desired amount, and then use
a powder trickier to dial in the exact
amount required.

Scooping powder by hand.

100 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

The mighty RCBS ChargeMaster.

PUTTING YOUR HANDLOAD TOGETHER 101

In lieu of a dispenser, I scoop
powder into the tray by hand. I have
several manufactured scoops and
homemade varieties to choose from,
depending on the cartridge for which
I’m loading. For example, the .38
Special uses somewhere around
3.5 grains of powder, the .30-06
Springfield somewhere in the 50- to
55-grain range, while the .416 Rigby
and .460 Weatherby use well over
100 grains of powder, so different
scoops for different applications.
Once I get the charge weight close, I
finish it by using the powder trickier
for that last tiny bit of powder.

Some folks (including me) enjoy
using a digital powder dispenser,
such as the RCBS ChargeMaster.

It combines an electronic dispenser
and digital scale into one unit. It has
a large plastic hopper to store the
powder you are using and a worm
screw-style threaded tube that spins
to dispense the powder into the tray.
Overall, it looks very similar to
the powder trickier device, but it’s
activated by an electronic motor.

You simply enter the charge weight
desired on the keypad and the ma¬
chine dispenses that exact amount. It
is easily programmable and capable
of storing a number of your favorite
loads. It also has a feature I like very
much, a repeatable dispensing option
that refills the powder tray every
time you empty it. It even keeps
a count of the number of powder
charges dispensed, so you can com¬
pare it to the number of cases you’ve
filled. Again, the digital scale on
the unit must be frequently zeroed
to maintain a consistent powder

charge. Even with all the advan¬
tages this device offers, I still check
the dispensed weight of powder on
my balance beam scale every five
or 10 rounds to be sure the digital
scale hasn’t lost zero or drifted at
all. As much as the electronic age is
convenient, I’m a firm believer in the
philosophy of “gravity never wears
out,” and I trust the simple beam
scale above all else! Call me old-
fashioned, I guess.

Now, when you have the correct
weight of powder on the scale, the
powder funnel is placed over the case
mouth and the powder is carefully
poured into the case. Keep a small
brush and dust pan in the area in
case you have any spills; never use

Carefully dispense the powder into the case.

102 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

a vacuum for gunpowder or primers,
as the static electricity can cause an
ignition within the vacuum.

At this time, I’d like to talk about
a practice I’ve developed over the
years, one I’m sure I’m going to
get some flak from the high-volume
pistol reloaders. I charge only one
case a time and then move on to seat
the bullet. It’s a tedious way of doing
things, but here’s a scenario that may
make you adopt this practice.

I’ve seen (at my local Sheriff’s
office) a .45 ACP handgun liter¬
ally blown in two. The cause was a
case that was double-charged with
powder. The .45 ACP and many other
pistol cases have the capacity to hold
more than twice the recommended
powder and, if you are slightly
distracted or simply count which
cases you’ve charged incorrectly,
you have a bomb in your hands. The
opposite applies to rifles. I’ve seen
a shooter at the range fire his rifle,
only to hear a funny “pop” instead
of the usual loud report. The shooter
ejected the case and saw that the
primer was struck and the bullet was
gone. My dad, ol’ Grumpy Pants,
started screaming at the guy to stop,
when the gentleman started to load
another round. The poor fella looked
shocked, had no idea why GP was
yelling at him. See, that particular
round he’d just fired had no powder
in it. But the force of the primer
had been just enough to lodge that
round’s bullet into the rifling of the
barrel. Had he squeezed off another
round, the second bullet would have
slammed into the first and, quite
possibly, have created pressures

large enough to blow up the barrel
and, maybe, the shooter. A cleaning
rod (and a mallet) safely removed
the first bullet, and you can bet the
shooter was happy to leave with his
only injury being a dent to his pride.

The way I load powder—one case
at a time and then seating the bul¬
let—allows me to visually inspect the
load before seating the bullet. I have
to see an empty case before I use the
funnel, then I have to see powder in
the case before I seat a bullet.

SEATING THE BULLET

Now that you have the proper
amount of powder in your case, let’s
move onto the last phase.

For this step you will need the bul¬
let seating die and the tools to adjust
it, along with your micrometer and
enough bullets for the cases you are
going to load.

When I’m first starting a loading
session, I often make a dummy round,
a case without a primer or powder
(and plainly marked so), so that, if
my seating dies need to be adjusted,

I can establish the proper length
with a minimum of effort. If I load
several different bullets for the same
cartridge, I make a dummy round for
each bullet, labeling accordingly.

With the ram extended upward,
the bullet seating die is screwed
down into the press until the rim of
the die touches the shellholder. The
die is then backed off at least one full
turn. The die’s lock ring should now
be tightened to secure the die’s depth.
Loosen the seating plug rod located
on the top of the die, then raise (un-

PUTTING YOUR HANDLOAD TOGETHER 103

The bullet seating process. The finished product, a newly created,

properly dimensioned cartridge!

screw) the rod until the bullet seater
is at its highest position.

Gently place a bullet into the case
mouth and extend the ram upward.
Lower the bullet seater until you
feel it make contact with the meplat
(nose) of the bullet. Next, lower the
ram and screw the bullet seater down
two or three turns. Raise the ram
again, now seating the bullet further
into the case. Lower the ram, remove

the cartridge and, using the microm¬
eter, measure the cartridge overall
length (COL). Compare the measured
length to the COL figure given in the
reloading manual for the load you’re
using. If the cartridge is too long, you
must lower the seating die until you
achieve the proper length—yes, this
is step by step, trial and error pro¬
cess. If the bullet has been seated too
deep, I use the bullet puller or inertia

104 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

This .38 Special case wasn’t properly flared. As a result, the seating process tore the case wall.

hammer to remove the bullet from
the case and start the procedure again
until I have achieved a cartridge of
the proper COL dimension.

Once the die has been properly set
up to give the desired seating depth,
you can start the process of seating
bullets into the cases that have the
powder charge in place. Measure
each cartridge for length with the
micrometer and place the loaded
cartridges into your storage box.

For the pistol calibers, it is ex¬
tremely important that you strictly
adhere to the COL published values,
especially when they’re being used in
an autoloading pistol. This dimension
will allow the cartridges to feed prop¬
erly and keep pressures in line with
the manual. In a revolver, following
the published data will give you car¬
tridges that fit the cylinder perfectly,

with no over-length issues that will
either prevent you from properly
closing the cylinder or have the re¬
volver lock up thanks to a pulled
bullet. (A “pulled” bullet, also known
as a bullet that’s “pulled crimp” is
one that unseats and moves forward
slightly out of the case during the
recoil generated from another car¬
tridge being fired. It’s a phenomenon
that mostly happens with large-bore
revolvers, and, when it does, the bul¬
let can extend past the cylinder face,
preventing the cylinder from turning
and even from being opened up with¬
out some serious force applied. In all,
you really don’t want this to happen.)

For rifle shooters, bullet seating
depth can have a great affect on the
performance of the rifle. A wealth
of information has been exchanged
about the benefits of seating the bul-

PUTTING YOUR HANDLOAD TOGETHER 105

let in the case at a depth of 0.015-
inch or less off the lands and grooves
of the rifling, in order to attain supe¬
rior accuracy. The idea is to mini¬
mize the amount of “jump” the bullet
has from the case mouth to the rifled
portion of the barrel. This is a very
complicated technique and, if done
improperly, can result in a pressure
spike that can be detrimental to your
health and your rifle. You never want
the bullet to be touching the rifle bar¬
rel’s lands before it’s been fired. Too,
seating the bullets too far out will
often prevent your cartridges from
fitting into the magazine of your
rifle. Forward-seating rifle bullets
is a technique best left to the most
experienced loaders. Heck, I fall into
the “most experienced” category
and I avoid the practice altogether.

I firmly believe that the best level

of safety and accuracy can be found
with a proper COL and the habit of
weighing out your projectiles into
uniform groups, and I like to adhere
to overall lengths that do not exceed
the SAAMI specifications.

Note that, in addition to the
general rule of keeping your COL to
that recommended in your reload¬
ing manual, some of the all-copper
or gilding metal rifle bullets such
as the Barnes TSX, Hornady GMX,
or Nosier E-Tip can be very sensi¬
tive to seating depth. With these
premium bullets, a slight variation
of the seating depth of the bullet can
have a drastic effect on accuracy. Yes,
some experimentation with differ¬
ent seating depths is often called for
and, when the magic depth is found,
these can be among the most accurate
bullets available—but sometimes an

106 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

adjustment of 0.1-inch will make or
break your group. I suggest you con¬
tact the bullet manufacturer for their
recommended seating depths and
safe practices with these mono-metal
bullets, if the SAAMI maximum
length does not give you the accu¬
racy you desire; when you do find
the proper seating depth with these
particular bullets in your rifle, be sure
and keep accurate records, so you can
reproduce the recipe!

Seating your bullets too deep in a
rifle cartridge case is a problem for
any rifle bullet. Doing so will cause
pressures to rise, so, again, be sure
to use the micrometer to maintain a
COL consistent with the test data in
your reloading manual.

If a bullet has a “cannelure,” that
ring around it near the base that’s
often grooved, I believe it is best to

seat the bullet so that the case mouth
is halfway up the cannelure from the
base of the bullet. This depth of seat¬
ing is most often the one the bullet
company used when it performed
its testing; if you’re using a reload¬
ing book produced by your bullet’s
maker, you should find that the data
in the reloading manual will closely
match your own findings.

CRIMPING

Some cartridges require that
their bullets be crimped into the
case mouth, to ensure the forces of
recoil or rapid loading don’t force
the bullet to move. The rimmed and/
or straight-walled cases that are so
popular in the lever-action rifles are
one example, and many of the com¬
mon revolver rounds are another.

These .45 Colt cartridges were roll crimped, so the bullets won’t move out of the case under
recoil, when fired in a revolver.

PUTTING YOUR HANDLOAD TOGETHER 107

A heavy roll crimp was placed on the case mouths of this .458 Winchester Magnum (left) and the
noticeably bigger .500 Nitro Express.

108 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Most of our favorite lever-action
rifles feature a tubular magazine, and
the bullets, while lined up nose to
tail in the magazine, can be driven
into the case mouth from the recoil
generated from firing. In the case of
the revolver, as I’ve already noted,
the opposite holds true: the bullets
can move out past the case mouth
from the recoil.

To combat the movement of the
bullets, the very edge of the case
mouth is rolled into the bullet’s can¬
nelure. This is known, aptly enough,
as “roll crimping.” The hard-recoiling
“safari” cartridges are often crimped,
to be sure that the bullets don’t move
in the case when in the magazine of
a bolt-action rifle or in the second
barrel of a double rifle. Many early
reports of the .458 Winchester Mag¬
num claimed that the heavy recoil
of this cartridge would often drive
the bullets down into the cartridge
case, resulting in heavily compressed
loads, which produced much lower
than normal velocities. I’ve never
personally experienced this, but I
also have no reason to doubt the
stories. Oh, and one thing more than
worth noting about this subject: I
want to state here that any bullet that
does not have a cannelure should
never be crimped, as you can damage
the case and bullet trying to do so.

In order to use your seating die to
seat the bullet and place a roll crimp
on the case, follow this procedure:

With a cleaned and resized (and
flared, if necessary) case, seat the
bullet as described in the section
above, so that the COL is as desired.

Then, back the seating plug (turn
it counterclockwise) out of the die
to its highest setting. Next, with
cartridge and ram extended fully
upward, loosen the lock ring and the
seating die, then screw the seat¬
ing die down until you feel the top
of the die barely “bite” on the case
mouth. Lower the ram and screw the
die down an eighth of turn. When
you extend the ram upward again,
you should see the roll crimp on the
bullet cannelure. It may take several
tries (and several cases) until you get
it right. Don’t get upset, you’ll iron it
out. Once the roll crimp is adjusted
properly, raise the ram again and
lower the seating plug until you just
feel it touching the top of the bullet.
Now, back the ram off and lower the
seating plug an eighth to a quarter of
a turn. The next cartridge you make
should both seat and crimp in the
same stroke. Use the micrometer to
verify the COL.

Be careful and read your reload¬
ing manual, as not all cartridges can
be roll crimped. The uber-popular
.45 ACP, for example, headspaces off
the case mouth and must use a taper
crimp to ensure proper loading and
firing. The taper crimp doesn’t roll
the brass over into a cannelure, rather
it squeezes the mouth portion of the
case tightly against the bullet. This
technique firmly holds the bullet in
place, yet maintains the square-cut
case mouth that allows the case to be
properly headspaced in the firearm’s
chamber. Several companies make a
taper crimping die, separate from all
the others previously described.

PUTTING YOUR HANDLOAD TOGETHER 109

For all your loading sessions, be sure and record your work. It will
be a great reference for the future and help you keep track of how
your loads performed when you take them to the range. For example:

11 October 101 3

.30-06 Springfield, Winchester
Model 70 Featherweight

Remington cases, third load¬
ing, 20 cases

CCI200 Large Rifle primer
Nosier 165-grain Ballistic Tip

55.0 grains IMR4350

COL = 3.340 inches

Range results: 100-yard three-
shot group spread of 0.85-
inch, 2,725fps on chrono¬
graph, no pressure signs.

11 October 1013

.30-06 Springfield, Winchester

52.5 grains ofReloder-19

Model 70 Featherweight

COL = 3.340 inches

Federal cases, first loading,

20 cases

Range results: 100-yard three-shot

group average spread of 2.5

Federal 210 Large Rifle primer

inches, 2,420fps on chrono¬

Hornady 220-grain InterLock

graph, slight pressure signs.

Not very inspiring, can do better.

Entries such as these will help you replicate the best results and
eliminate the clunkers. It will also give you an idea of how many fir¬
ings you’re getting from your brass, what loads your guns like best,
whether or not your loads are approaching dangerous pressure, and
so on and so forth. My notebook is invaluable to me.

110 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

CHAPTER 6

WHAT TO BUY

I n Chapter 5,1 covered the basic
process of loading a cartridge.
Now I wish to discuss the numer¬
ous types of components currently
available to the loader, help explain
their differences, and discuss some
ways to use them effectively. The
reloading process itself has remained
relatively unchanged since the days
of O’Connor and Keith, but some of
the components we have available
to us today would have gained their
attention in a heartbeat!

What follows is a cross-section of
some of the advancements and chang¬
es in reloading products. Hopefully it
will help you decide on a place to start
as a new handloader, then provide a
pathway for experimentation, as you
learn and become more confident both

in your loads and how they perform in
your firearms.

PRIMERS

For the most part, the primers of
30 years ago are relatively unchanged
today. This is a good thing. Be¬
ing able to count upon consistent
ignition, without corrosion, is often
taken for granted. Whichever of the
major manufacturers’ products you
choose, I believe you can count upon
a repeatable scenario. CCI, Federal,
Remington, and Winchester all make
very reliable products, for a wide
range of applications. Some smaller
and lesser known companies also
have primers available as compo¬
nents. TulAmmo and MagTech both

Medal Large
Rifle primers.

(Photo courtesy Massaro
Media Group & J.D.
Fielding Photography)

WHAT TO BUY 111

A wide variety of .375-inch caliber bullets.

make a full line of rifle and pis¬
tol primers, while Fiocchi (best
known for its shotgun ammuni¬
tion), also offers Small Rifle
and Small Pistol primers.

The bottom line to primers
is this. Primers are the ignition
system of any cartridge and,
without a healthy supply, you’re
out of business. They can’t be
reused or refurbished. Once you
settle on a brand and type that
works for you, I advise you pick
up at least a couple thousand to
be sure you have a good supply
on hand. Keep them in a cool,
dry place and they’ll stay good
almost indefinitely.

The classic
Remington
Core-Lokt.

RIFLE BULLETS

Unlike primers, bullet technology
has progressed leaps and bounds in the
last three decades. There’s a lot to cover
here. Let’s look at rifle bullets first.

Some gun writers, like Jack
O’Connor, trusted in the rapid expan¬

sion of light-for-caliber bullets to
dispatch game. Elmer Keith liked the
deep penetration of heavy-for-caliber
bullets to take large animals. Both
camps have their followers, kind of a
Chevy versus Ford thing. I subscribe
to both, in varying degrees and de¬
pending on the job at hand.

112 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

An early box of Winchester
Silvertips, in .348 Winchester.

SilverTip, they are still
with us. (The Winchester
SilverTip was a traditional
cup-and-core bullet, with
the nose covered by a harder
metal to ensure deep penetration.)
The Grand Slam from Speer uses
a lead core of varying hardness,
so as to better hold together for
deep penetration. This bullet is still
available, and it performs very well.
Speer’s Hot-Cor bullet is also still
available, and Speer has introduced
a new bonded-core Deep Curl bullet,
for higher weight retention. Speer’s
TNT line of varmint bullets possess
the frangible qualities a good varmint
bullet should.

The late John Nosier was very
unhappy with the shallow penetration
of traditional cup-and-core bullets
run out of his .300 Holland & Hol-

Speer bullets
have always been
a good value.

The classic bullets that started
it all are still with us, very much
alive and well and still well-loved
and much used to this day. These
include Hornady’s Interlock, Si¬
erra’s GameKings, Pro-Hunters, and
MatchKings, Winchester’s Power¬
Point, Remington’s Core-Lokt, and
Speer’s Hot-Cor, to name a few. I can
remember ol’ Grumpy Pants waxing
poetically about the premium rifle
bullets of his youth: The Winchester
SilverTip, the Nosier Partition, and
the Speer Grand Slam.

They were and are great bul¬
lets and, with the exception of the

WHAT TO BUY 113

land and impacted on
the shoulder of a large
moose. Necessity being
the mother of inven¬
tion, he drilled out a
copper rod from both
ends, crimped the nose
section, and filled the
jacket with lead, leav¬
ing a copper “partition”
in the center. The front
half of the bullet would

The Nosier Partition, the premium bullet that started it all.

An array of Barnes
bullets, including
the TSX and TTSX.

50 BUI
308

30cal;

180G

114 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

expand in a familiar manner, while
the shank portion of the bullet behind
the partition would continue to pene¬
trate deep into the game animal. This
performance was unprecedented.
Today, the Nosier Partition continues
as a staple in the hunting world, and
it’s one I use to this day.

In more recent history, there have
been some innovative and down¬
right wonderful new bullet designs.
Perhaps the most radical has been the

Barnes X, now updated to the Triple
Shock (TSX). Fred Barnes founded
the company, priding himself in
creating heavy-for-caliber bullets that
would penetrate. The company went
through hard times and was eventu¬
ally purchased by Randy and Coni
Brooks, in the 1980s. Randy Brooks
had a revolutionary idea whilst
hunting brown bears: Remove the
soft lead from the equation and use
only the harder copper gilding metal.
That design was offered in a hol-
lowpoint configuration, which would
expand upon contact and create what
resembled the letter “X” after expan¬
sion. Overall, the bullet offered a
combination of rapid expansion and
deep penetration.

I must go on the record as saying
that the initial design of this bullet
intrigued me, but I couldn’t get it to
shoot well. It also left an extraor¬
dinary amount of copper fouling in
my rifle’s bore; being all copper and,
thus, lighter than lead, the bullet was
longer than its cup-and-core coun¬
terparts and, so, had more bearing
surface on the rifling. I tried several
different calibers and bullet weights
of the Barnes X, but to no avail. I just
could not get the accuracy level out
of them I demand from my rifles and,
because of this, I abandoned them for
a good while.

Things might have changed for
me and the Barnes bullet. Several of
my customers have recently ordered
some of the revised Triple Shock
(TSX) projectiles, which, in effect,
forced me to take another look at the
idea. As explained in a recent con¬
versation with the good Mr. Brooks,

WHAT TO BUY 115

Expanded and recovered .416-caliber 400-grain bullets, used to take a Cape buffalo, in Zambia.

he revamped the design by cutting
grooves in the bullet’s shank of the
bullet, thereby reducing fouling. It
not only did that quite well, accuracy
was greatly improved! Overall, the
TSX from Barnes is an accurate,
deep-penetrating, and dependable
big-game bullet. It has a great reputa¬
tion across the globe. We now also
have the Barnes TTSX (Tipped Triple
Shock X), a similar all-copper bullet,
but with a pointed polymer tip. Both
designs will deliver the dependable
penetration we hunters all desire,
easily reaching the vitals, and, when
properly loaded, they will deliver pin¬
point accuracy. I think the only bone
of contention I have with them is that
the seating depth has a great deal of
influence on their accuracy, but, once
the proper depth is found, you’ll have
a lifetime of good accuracy and kill¬
ing power. I really enjoy these bullets

when loading the lighter-for-caliber
recipes, as they will attain the high
velocity of a light bullet, yet still hold
together and penetrate like a much
heavier bullet. The 130-grain .308-
inch diameter, 160-grain .338-inch
diameter, and 23 5-grain .375-inch
diameter are among my favorites.

Building upon the idea of a
partitioned bullet, Swift’s Bill Hober
decided to improve their performance
by chemically bonding the copper
jacket to the hard lead core. Presto!
The Swift A-Frame was born. The
front portion expands to two times
the caliber, and the portion behind
the partition almost always rivets
during penetration. Weight retention
is often over 90 percent. I have taken
dozens of species of game on the
North American and African conti¬
nents with this bullet, and I believe it
to be one of the best available to the

116 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Jack Carter’s brilliant idea, which essentially A polymer-tipped version of the Trophy

blends the Nosier Partition and Barnes X bullets. Bonded Bear Claw.

big-game hunter. This bullet can pro¬
duce sub-MOA groups, even in the
big safari calibers. I can best describe
this bullet as “meat resistant,” that
is, the more meat it hits, the more it
opens and disperses its energy.

I’ve used a 300-grain, .375-inch
diameter Swift A-Frame bullet
on an 1,800-pound bison on the
Great Plains, recovering the bul¬
let at 92-percent weight retention.
This same bullet whistles through a
diminutive African steenbok, produc¬
ing little expansion or meat damage,
yet still killing quickly and cleanly.

In my humble opinion, the 400-grain
.416-caliber Swift A-Frame, deliv¬
ered from either a .416 Remington
or .416 Rigby, makes the ideal Cape
buffalo medicine. The A-Frame really
shines on the bigger and nastier crea¬
tures and, if you’re looking to beef up
the performance of your favorite deer

rifle for use on larger game, this is an
excellent choice.

Jack Carter also modified the
partition idea, this time by remov¬
ing all the lead behind the partition
to leave nothing but solid copper in
the rear of the bullet. The Trophy
Bonded Bear Claw is what’s known
as a “bonded bullet,” with lead in the
nose area only and solid copper billet
in the rear. It hits hard and holds to¬
gether very well. The Bear Claw is an
accurate bullet. It is currently loaded
by the Federal Cartridge Company
and available as a component. There
is also a polymer-tipped variety, engi¬
neered to give a better B.C.

For many years, big-game hunt¬
ers envied the benchrest crowd’s
accuracy with their “match-grade”
bullets. These bullets were often hol-
lowpoint boat-tails, constructed with
nothing more (and nothing less!)

WHAT TO BUY 117

Swift offers only
two bullet types,
the A-Frame and
the Scirocco
II. Both are
among the
best-performing
hunting bullets
available.

Nosier has a wide selection of premium bullets, enough to satisfy the whole gamut of shooters’ needs.

than precision in mind. Penetration
and expansion mattered not, because
paper was the intended target. Some
hunters tried using uber-accurate
match bullets on game, with poor
result; the bullets lacked the strength
for suitable penetration. Enter the
good folks from Nosier again. They
used the hollowpoint boat-tail design,
but this time with a thicker, jacket

and a sharp polymer tip in the hollow
cavity intended to initiate proper ex¬
pansion. Today, hunters have been en¬
joying the Ballistic Tip for more than
two decades. It is best used on game
from the size of pronghorn antelope
to caribou; bullets for bigger, tougher
game are best left to the Partition
realm. Ballistic Tips are exception¬
ally accurate.

118 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

North Fork bonded-core semi-spitzers and cup solids.

There is also another similar
Nosier offering called the Accubond.
It looks quite like a Ballistic Tip, but,
instead of a nose tip color-coded by
caliber, the Accubond is bedecked
in white and the core is chemically
bonded to the jacket to prevent sepa¬
ration. From the small- and medium-
game calibers to the mighty .375-
inch bore, the Accubond is capable of
good accuracy and trajectory, while
still holding together. Nosier also
has its Custom Competition series,
specifically created with the target
shooter in mind. These are comprised
of precision drawn jackets and a long
boat-tail for the high B.C. paper-
punchers love so much. They are a
match-grade hollowpoint, designed
for use on paper only, and are not
recommended for hunting applica¬
tions. They are a serious contender

when uber-accuracy is desired.

Bill Hober at Swift wasn’t done,
when he created the A-Frame. His
Scirocco II could be described as a
Ballistic Tip on steroids. Designed as
a hunting bullet with a much thicker
jacket than other bullets and, like the
Nosier Accubond, with a chemically
bonded core, this long lean beast is
also exceptionally accurate. Weight
retention is not that far behind the
A-Frame, and the very high ballistic
coefficient makes the trajectory flat.
I’ve seen some hunting rifles give
benchrest accuracy with these bullets,
and they hit hard. I used a 180-grain
Scirocco II out of my .308 Winchester
to crumple a 200-plus-pound Cana¬
dian black bear like he’d been a piece
of typing paper.

Originally out of Wyoming, the
North Fork Bullet Company of Or-

WHATTOBUY 119

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fieldinc

The Scirocco II is capable of producing very fine accuracy.

120 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Hornady’s FlexTip bullets, with pliable nose section.

egon has some rather unique designs
in its lineup. The flagship of the fleet
is the Bonded Core Soft Point, a
semi-spitzer that balances its weight
toward the front of the bullet. The
shank of the bullet has a series of
minute grooves, designed to reduce
fouling and keep pressures low.
These bullets are constructed of pure
copper and pure lead, for deep pen¬
etration and weight retention. They
are a great hunting bullet choice.

For those headed across the pond
for the big nasties, North Fork offers
a Flat Point Solid and a Cup Point
Solid. Both are mono-metal bullets,
but the Cup Point has an indenta¬
tion in the nose section, creating an
“expanding solid,” if you will. The
goal is to have a slight deformation
in the frontal section for larger-than-
caliber expansion, while retaining

the classic, straight-line penetration
of a solid bullet. I like this idea for
a follow-up shot on Cape buffalo,
because everyone knows how cranky
those guys are when they’ve got a
bullet in them and haven’t decided to
die yet. North Fork also offers a Per¬
cussion Point, a bullet scored at the
nose to initiate more rapid expansion
on the great cats, thus imparting
hydrostatic shock to dispatch lions,
and leopards, notorious for being
undead when you least need them
to be. They would also make a great
deer bullet, in my opinion.

The folks at Hornady have been
busy lately. I think its FlexTip line is
a really neat idea. Ammunition for
lever-action rifles and their tubu¬
lar magazines has been limited to
flat-tipped or round-nosed bullets, to
eliminate the possibility of having

WHAT TO BUY 121

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Hornady’s line of premium bullets are a great choice for the hunting fields.

the pointed nose of a sharp spitzer
bullet punch the primer of the bullet
in front of it in the tube and causing
a chain-fire magazine detonation.

The problem with round- and flat¬
nosed bullets is that they lose their
velocity and, therefore, their energy,
rather quickly downrange. That’s why
most lever-actions are considered to
have limited effective range. That all
changed when Hornady developed a
pliable, rubbery nose and put it on a
spitzer bullet, thereby solving both
the problems of magazine chain-fire
and limited range. There is no risk of
magazine detonation, and the classics
now benefit from the better trajectory
and striking energy of the spitzer bul¬
let. Grandpa’s old .30-30 WCF gets

a whole new take on life, and I’m
even seeing these classic lever guns
on the Great Plains used for hunting
pronghorn!

Hornady also has revamped its
bigger caliber bullets, introducing
what it calls the DGX and DGS bul¬
lets (Dangerous Game expanding
and Dangerous Game Solid). They
are loaded in Hornady’s factory
ammunition and are also available
as component parts for the African
hunter or those looking to pursue the
great bears.

While famous for its cup-and-core
InterLock bullet, which is an old, prov¬
en faithful, Hornady has now added
the SST, essentially the Interlock with
a red polymer tip that prevents any

122 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Hornady 150-grain GMX bullets loaded in the
.270 Winchester Short Magnum.

damage to the lead nose and improves
the downrange ballistics. I’ve found
this bullet to be very accurate and just
hell on deer-sized game!

There is a movement to ban the
use of lead-core ammunition, spurred
on by a large, long state on the West
Coast. Without getting politi¬
cal, the unfortunate reality
is that there may very well
be a lead ban in many other
places in the near future. Some
answers to this, and certainly
options for those target shoot¬
ers and hunters doing what they
do where lead ammo restrictions
are already in place, the Barnes
TSX is pure
copper, as is the
Hornady GMX
(Gilding Metal
expanding), and
the Nosier E-Tip.

All three are all approved for use in
those areas that ban the use of lead
bullets. Both the GMX and E-Tip are
polymer-tipped spitzers, and accurate
ones at that. Like the TSX, the GMX
and E-Tip are longer in any given
caliber/weight than a cup-and-core of
the same weight, but, loaded prop¬
erly, they are very effective bullets.

The folks at Sierra have been
making wonderfully accurate bul¬
lets since the late 1940s. The Sierra
MatchKing series is, in a simple turn
of phrase, the benchmark of rifle
accuracy. They have been available
for decades, originally offered as a
FMJ configuration and now revised
to the very well-known boat-tail or
flat-base hollowpoint design that
has set so many target records and
been responsible for some incredible
long-range shots. The .30-caliber
168-grain MatchKing is, perhaps,
the most inherently accurate of the
bunch. My bud Mark “Pig Newton”

WHAT TO BUY 123

Nazi has a .308 Winchester that puts
these into %-MOA, and my .22-250
Remington absolutely loves launch¬
ing the .224-inch 53-grain flat-base
hollowpoint MatchKing through her
barrel. When I am developing a load
for a rifle I feel might have a ques¬
tionable barrel, I reach for a Sierra
MatchKing in that caliber and start
the testing there—they’re that good.
While they are not recommended for
hunting applications, I can tell you
that the 5 3-grain MKs are devastating
on coyotes and foxes, when properly
placed from my .22-250.

Sierra’s hunting bullet lineup has
become an old standby. It’s kind
of funny. I was chatting with my
pal Carroll Pillant, from Sierra, at
a trade show and asked him what
new products were coming out this
year. Completely deadpan, he looked

at me and said “Nuthin’.” When I
laughed he said “We can’t keep up
with customer demand for the bullets
we already offer. There’s no time to
develop a new one.” Another way
of looking at it is that Sierra bullets
work so well there really isn’t much
need to develop anything new. The
Pro-Hunter series of flat-base (both
round-nosed and spitzer) bullets are
a solid choice for hunting, and the
GameKing spitzer boat-tails have a
well-earned reputation for long-range
accuracy and hitting hard. There is a
polymer-tipped BlitzKing available
for the lighter calibers and designed
for rapid expansion, along with many
hollowpoint designs to round out a
full line of varmint bullets.

One of my favorite bullets from
Sierra is Part No. 2140, the .308-inch
165-grain HPBT GameKing. It’s

Sierra makes a great
line of products,
including the
165-grain GameKing,
second from left.

124 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

diameter 500-grain soft-
points and solids.

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro
Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

designed after the 168-grain Match-
King, but with an appropriately thick
jacket for hunting. The hollowpoint
nose is crimped shut, sort of in the
form of an “X.” Bottom line, this
is a devastating deer bullet. Kevin
Hicks uses it in his WWII-era 03-A3
Springfield named “Autumn,” and
I’ve used it extensively in my .308
Winchester. Both rifles print well
under a single MOA with it and have
accounted for numerous deer in Up¬
state New York. It has great accuracy,
with good penetration and expansion.
Good job, Sierra!

Woodleigh Bullets from Australia
isn’t a new company, and while you
may not have heard of them, they
hold a very important place among
the bullet maker crowd. For those
of us with vintage rifles, especially
double rifles of European design
and which were regulated with the

British Kynoch ammo, we turn to
Woodleigh for bullets that are of
proper dimension. You see, Kynoch
was out of commission for a few
decades, and Woodleigh filled the
niche. It allowed the collectors and
shooters of those classic guns to
drag them out of mothballs and get
them out to the range and game fields
again. The Woodleigh Weldcore is a
round-nosed bonded-core bullet that
has gained a respectable reputation
going up against heavy, thick-skinned
animals. I have also read about a “hy¬
drostatically stabilized” solid that has
a cupped front and a banded shank,
designed for a large wound channel
and straight-line penetration. To the
African hunter, the bullet choices
have never been better!

Berger Bullets are one of the
newly popular companies offering
both match-grade target bullets and

WHAT TO BUY 125

■^*9 oLtmrt, ttd c.

10Q Ct

VLD

5MI\A 140 GRAIN
MATCH GRADE

Berger 6.5mm (.264-inch) 140-grain VLD
bullets. Long and lean, these bullets have a
very high B.C. and are wonderfully accurate.

extremely accurate hunting bullets.
From The VLD (Very Low Drag) line
of hunting bullets to the very heavy-
for-caliber boat-tail match offerings,
Berger Bullets and its J4 match-grade
jackets can and will produce impres¬
sive results. I have had very good re¬
sults with Berger bullets in my friend
Le Frogg’s .17 Remington, especially
with the heavier 30-grain model. It
easily creates the deadly “red mist”
on woodchucks out to 350 yards.
These bullets are very consistent and
well known for their accuracy.

Precision Ballistics is a maker of
hand-swaged and -assembled premium
bullets for the competition shooter. They
are available in 6mm and 6.5mm only,
but produce some extremely impressive

results in rifles of this bore size. They
feature the Berger J4 jacket (renowned
for its accuracy), and bullet weight is
held to extremely tight tolerances.

John Lazzeroni, famous for the
proprietary magnum rifles that bear his
name, has produced his own projectile
designed to work well in the cartridges
he designed. The LazerHead bullet is
an all-copper hollowpoint boat-tail,
very similar in construction to the
Barnes TSX. I haven’t used them yet,
but, after speaking with John and hear¬
ing his tales of some very, very long-
range success stories, I look forward to
using them.

Norma has some cool bullets avail¬
able. The Oryx is a semi-spitzer with
a pure lead core bonded to the jacket.
The jacket is thinner towards the front
of the bullet, getting thicker toward
the rear to retard expansion and retain
weight. Many of my friends who hunt
in Africa swear by this bullet. The
Norma Kalahari is a lead-free hol¬
lowpoint bullet of revolutionary shape.
The front portion is designed to break
into six frangible petals to create a
large wound channel, while the rear
portion is designed to penetrate deeply.
The Norma Alaskan is a round-nose
soft-point that performs well and
penetrates deeply. It makes a great
choice on larger game at close ranges.
Norma’s Vulkan is a pointed bullet
with a squared meplat, and the jacket
is folded over and crimped into the
core at the nose. The flattened point
gives rapid expansion, while resisting
deformation. Finally, for the largest of
African game, Norma offers its own
Solid bullet. It has a very good reputa¬
tion among African Professional Hunt-

126 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Left to right, the Norma
Oryx, Norma round¬
nosed Alaskan, and the
flat meplat Norma Vulcan.

Left to right, the Lapua
Scenar, Lapua’s Mega,
and Lapua’s Natural is.

ers and would make a good choice for
the travelling hunter. They are offered
in calibers between 9.3mm (.366-inch)
and the behemoth .500 Jeffery and
.505 Gibbs.

Lapua offers bullets that are on par
with the quality of its legendary brass
cases. The Scenar and Scenar-L are
among the best target bullets avail¬
able, both offering extremely tight
tolerances and boat-tail hollowpoint

construction that benchrest shooters
love so much. They are a very accurate
target bullet and well respected in the
benchrest community.

The Secnars aren’t the only bullets
Lapua makes. The Mega and the Natu-
ralis are both hunting bullets that are
often used in Scandinavia. The Mega
is a long, lean, cup-and-core blunt-
nosed hunting bullet, offered in 6.5mm,
.308, and 9.3mm bore diameters and

WHAT TO BUY 127

designed for high weight retention. The
Naturalis is comprised of 99-perecent
copper, with a hollowpoint capped
with a green plastic tip. It’s a bit more
rounded than the Nosier Ballistic Tip
or Swift Scirocco II, but still initiates
expansion on the same basic principle.

There is a, well, rather radical bullet
company from Pennsylvania named
Cutting Edge Bullets, and it isn’t afraid
to step out of the box. It offers some
long-range bullets in the typical con¬
figuration of a boat-tail hollowpoint,
but these feature a “Sealtite” band.

This single band rides on the rifling
and forms a positive gas seal, which
aids in utilizing all the burning powder
in the barrel. There are different con¬
figurations, where the Sealtite band is
located in different positions depend¬
ing on its use in a magazine bolt-action
guns or for single-shot rifles where the
bullet can be seated further out of the
case. Very interesting concepts!

Cutting Edge’s Safari series is
constructed of brass. The Safari Solid
is a parallel-sided, solid, flat meplat

bullet made for straight-line penetra¬
tion without expansion. It should
prove to work well where a solid is
warranted. The Safari Raptor is a brass
hollowpoint bullet with six petals that
open upon impact. There is an optional
polymer plug that can be inserted into
the hollow cavity to further initiate
expansion and improve the ballistic
coefficient of the bullet.

These are but a few of the newer of¬
ferings. I couldn’t possibly cover them
all, and I intend no slight to anyone’s
product I haven’t mentioned, but the
point remains: As hunters and shooters
who load our own ammunition for our
rifles, we can tailor our choice of bullet
to the job at hand, and that is the most
fun part of handloading for our rifles!

PISTOL AND REVOLVER BULLETS

Pistol bullets have also made
great progress. One of the areas with
the largest degree of advancement
is in the realm of those intended for
self-defense.

Handgun bullets.

128 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

There are many bullets designed
for self-defense, such as the Hornady
XTP (extreme Terminal Perfor¬
mance), the Speer Gold Dot, and the
Federal Hydra Shok. The Gold Dot is
really nothing more than a very well-
constructed jacketed bullet, and it’s
available in most common handgun
calibers. Hornady’s XTP and XTP
Mag feature a very heavy jacket that
helps to control expansion, as well
as help the projectiles stand up to
higher velocity. My .45 Colt shoots
the 300 XTP very well. They are
strong enough to be used for backup
while hiking or for use during a bear
hunt. Finally, the Federal Hydra
Shok handgun bullet features a
center post, and the jacket is notched
to promote expansion for a high
energy exchange upon striking the
target. Any and all of these are good
choices for defense rounds.

For the competition pistol
shooter, Hornady’s HAP (Hor¬
nady Action Pistol) has many of

the proven features of the XTP, but
it lacks the cannelure and folded
copper jacket needed for controlled
expansion. Otherwise it has the same
dimensions, but it’s designed for
the very smooth feeding that target
shooters require.

Many shooting clubs with indoor
ranges don’t allow the use of bullets
with exposed lead, in order that lead
vapors can’t become an issue. Rainier
Bullets (www.rainierballistics.com),
from Washington State, makes pistol
bullets that are entirely covered with
a copper jacket. According to its

Expanded
Speer GoldDot
handgun bullet

An expanded
HydroShok, with
its center post
clearly visible.

The author’s sweetheart Ruger Blackhawk .45 Colt with ammunition loaded with 300-grain Hornady
XTP bullets.

WHAT TO BUY 129

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Falcon Bullets has a
full line of hard-cast
lead pistol bullets.

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media
Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

literature, this can reduce lead vapors
by up to 95 percent.

Cutting Edge Bullets has neat
pistol bullets, too. The HG Solid,

PHD (Personal Home Defense) and
Handgun Raptor bullets are com¬
prised of all copper. Both have three
or four driving bands on the bullet
shank, and while the HG Solid is a
solid-copper bullet, the PHD (Per¬
sonal Home Defense) bullet is a
hollowpoint with a deep cavity and is
actually designed to be very frangi¬
ble. Four copper petals open rapidly
upon impact and eventually separate
from the rear portion of the bullet,
for maximum hydrostatic shock. Af¬
ter that petal separation, the rear por¬
tion of the bullet continues to drive
through, for a devastating wound on
the front end of impact, followed by a
deep, caliber-sized wound channel.

This is Cutting Edge’s pistol bullet after impact. The “petals” break away for an initial wound area, then
the base travels further for deep penetration.

130 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

In this day of ammunition and
component scarcity (compounded
by the rising cost of copper-clad
pistol bullets), the pistol shooter who
enjoys putting a large amount of lead
downrange each weekend can find
themselves in a quandary. Hard-cast
lead pistol bullets can provide an
available and less expensive answer
for the weekend pistolero. Falcon
Bullet Company, from Tennessee,
makes great hard-cast lead bullets,
which are affordable and shoot very

well. I have used them with great
results, in both my .38 Special and
.45 Colt revolvers. I have also loaded
them in my .45 ACP ammunition and
printed very good groups. They are
available in a wide variety of calibers
and profiles.

It is also possible to cast your
own lead pistol bullets, to keep costs
down. Lyman and Lee, among others,
make good and affordable pistol (and
rifle) bullet molds that are fun and
simple to use. A good supply of lead,

The Barnes
XPB, shown
in section and
expanded.

WHAT TO BUY 131

some wheel weights for hardness,
and a place in the fresh open air to
melt the lead can yield a healthy
supply of pistol bullets for the range.
(I mention to do this in the open air
for a reason. You should never cast
lead bullets indoors. Inhaling the
fumes will have you drooling in your
oatmeal before you know it. Follow
the guidelines for the proper mix¬
ture of lead and antimony, melt and
mould outdoors, and you should have
a bunch of fun shooting your home¬
made creations!)

For those hunters who prefer to
pursue game with a handgun, there
are lots of great new hunting bullets
available, many constructed in the
same manner as rifle bullets.

The Barnes XPB is a pistol variety
of the all-copper bullet Barnes is so
famous for. Nosier offers the Sport¬
ing Handgun Revolver and Sport¬

ing Handgun Pistol bullets, both
well constructed. Swift offers the
famous A-Frame in many popular
hunting handgun calibers, providing
the reliable penetration and expan¬
sion needed for those who bring
their favorite handgun to the hunting
fields. Hornady makes the FTX bullet
in many popular revolver calibers,
for use in both pistols and rifles that
are chambered for those handgun
cartridges. The Flex-Tip gives a bet¬
ter ballistic coefficient than round- or
flat-nosed bullets, yet is perfectly
safe to use in a tubular magazine.

Use them in your handgun and they
will give you a bit flatter trajectory.

POWDER

Powders, along with bullets, have
made some huge technological leaps,
but it’s worth examining those that

Modern powder
comes in an
amazing variety.

132 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Left to right: Hodgdon’s H4831SC grains are cut shorter to flow better in the powder measurer;
Alliant BlueDot is very useful in handgun loads; IMR7828 is a fine choice for magnum cases, as its

slow burn rate helps develop high velocities. (Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

came before them, because it’s not
like the powders of yesteryear were
bad or inferior. Heck, I use many
powders that have been with us
since before my dad was born; the
IMR series of powders is a classic
that instantly comes to mind. The
IMR3031, IMR4064, IMR4320 and
IMR4350 of my father’s youth are
still here, still as good as they ever
were, and I use them for my own
loads and my clients on a daily basis.

Hodgdon’s many fantastic pow¬
ders are still around, although in
some improved variations. Its H380,
a spherical military surplus powder
named for Bruce Hodgdon’s famous
.22-250 load of 38.0 grains of powder
topped with a 5 5-grain bullet, is alive

and well. It is the powder of choice
for .22-250, in this author’s humble
opinion, yet is versatile enough to
produce very accurate loads in .308
Winchester and even the new kid
on the safari block, the .375 Ruger.
H4831 is now offered as H4831SC,
the SC standing for “short cut,” a
shorter-length stick powder designed
to better flow through a powder mea¬
sure. Burn rate and load data remain
the same as the older version, yet it is
easier to work with.

Winchester’s venerable powders
like W760 are still thriving, due to
the fact that Hodgdon is in charge
of not only its own powder line,
but also now produces the IMR and
Winchester lines.

WHAT TO BUY 133

Left to right: IMR8208XBR is very uniform across a wide range of temperatures; Alliant’s Power Pro
4000-MR is a good choice for larger capacity cases; Made in Finland, VihtaVuori’s N550 is a great

option for fueling the venerable .30-06 Springfield and its ilk. (Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

The old Hercules Company was
bought up by Alliant, and man , this
company is making great stuff! The clas¬
sic Reloder series still thrives, as does
the pistol/shotgun powders like BlueDot,
GreenDot, Unique, and Bullseye.

Old and faithful standbys aside,
some of the newer powders have
brought both old and new cartridges
to the forefront, by giving them the
power to show off their case capacity
and/or giving them a velocity boost
that was previously unobtainable.
IMR7828, introduced to reloaders in
1985, can gather very high velocities
out of magnum cases, something that
couldn’t be done with the old IMR
powders. This new one is a very slow
burning powder and functions best in
the big magnum cases and guns with
longer barrels.

IMR has also released another
new powder, one that should prove
very interesting: IMR8208XBR.
Designed to be insensitive to tem¬
perature fluctuations, it has a burn
rate slightly faster than IMR4895. It
will work well in the smaller cases
like the .223 Remington and .308
Winchester, as well as the large-bore
magnums like the .458 Winchester
Magnum. Famed writer and shooter
Jim Carmichael used this powder
to win the International Benchrest
Shooters National Championship
Heavy Varmint division, in 2009.

Alliant has recently developed
some cutting edge powders. The
aforementioned Reloder series is
now made more versatile on the
high and low end, with the inclu¬
sion of Reloder 25, designed for the

134 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

overbored magnum cartridges like
.30-378 Weatherby, .300 Remington
Ultra Magnum, and their ilk, and
Reloder 15, which is perfectly suited
for medium burn rate cartridges like
the .308 Winchester and .375 H&H
Magnum. Reloder 7 is designed for
the small varmint calibers, like the
.22 Hornet and .222 Remington, but
it also works very well in the larger
straight-walled cartridges like the
.45-70 Government, .458 Winchester
Magnum, and .444 Marlin.

Alliant has some specialty pow¬
ders for new cartridges, too. Reloder
17 is a perfect fit for the Winchester
lineup of WSM cartridges, and
Reloder 33 is designed to perform in
the long-range .338 Lapua case. The
Alliant Power Pro series of powders
changed up its configuration from
stick to spherical, and the new 4000-
MR has given very good results in
our 7mm Remington Magnums and
.300 Winchester Magnums. I’ve also
used it in the .270 Winchester with
great accuracy.

VihtaVuori is a powder company
from Finland, whose products are
gaining a solid reputation in the
States. I had a good time experi¬
menting with N550 in our .30-06
test rifle, achieving respectable
velocities and accuracy. VihtaVuori
has a complete lineup of powders
in varying burn rates, making them
suitable for reloading nearly any of
your favorite cartridges.

Accurate Arms Powders is another
company delivering great powders.

It offers a full range of burn rates,
from fast pistol powders up to and
including the company’s MagPro,

which is designed for the Winchester
WSM series and the Remington
SAUM line. I haven’t loaded an aw¬
ful lot of Accurate’s powders, but I
have friends who swear by it, and I
have no reason whatsoever to doubt
their data. Accurate’s sister company,
Ramshot, has some great powders
being made in Belgium. Big Game,
Magnum, and Terminator powders
will fill a wide variety of rifle cases,
while the True Blue and Silhouette
are good pistol powders.

Hodgdon has introduced an
entire line of “Extreme Extruded
Powders” for rifles. They are cut
in grain lengths that will flow well
through the variety of today’s many
powder measuring devices, and
these powders also show insensitiv¬
ity to temperature fluctuations. The
powders H322, Varget, Retumbo, and
H4831SC are all part of this series.
Consistency being the key to accu¬
racy, the minimal variations in these
powders makes them a very good
choice. They are designed to be less
affected by temperature variations
and, therefore, give a more uniform
velocity, regardless whether you’re
shooting in Texas or Manitoba.

Hodgdon’s TiteGroup is a newer
powder, one designed for a wide
range of pistol cartridges. Its pur¬
pose is to obtain standard velocity
with less powder than would nor¬
mally be anticipated with an older
powder style. It does just that and is
very accurate!

While chatting with Chris Hodg¬
don about some of the new develop¬
ments coming along, he was very
excited about a new powder called

WHAT TO BUY 135

Hodgdon’s TiteGroup will work in most common pistol calibers.

CFE223. The “CFE” portion stands
for “Copper Fouling Eraser” and, ac¬
cording to Chris, this powder actually
removes a good portion of the copper
fouling in your bore as you shoot. It
was designed to have a burn rate a bit
slower than IMR4064 or Varget and
it works fine in any cartridge that will
handle a medium burn rate powder.
Chris explained it was named for
the .223 Remington, and that round
is indeed a great application for this
powder. A CFE pistol powder will
also be unveiled soon. Exciting stuff,
especially if it does in fact make the
chore of cleaning an easier prospect!

BRASS

Component brass is being made
by more companies than ever before.
It used to be the case that you would

save your empty factory brass for
reloading, as the manufacturers of
new component brass were few and
far between. Things have certainly
changed, and brass makers now make
up their own little industry, pandering
to us handloaders. This is good.

The major ammunition manufac¬
turers were among the first to offer
new brass to the handloader, and now
we have a wide array of choices to fill
our needs. Remington still produces
brass with the “R-P” headstamp,
harking back to the Remington-Peters
days. Remington brass has to be
among my absolute favorite to load.

It gives great accuracy and great lon¬
gevity, these cases capable of being
reloaded many times. Winchester still
makes component brass, but, instead
of the “Super-X” or “W-W Super”

136 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Early Remington
component brass, this
being the venerable
speedster .220 Swift

WHAT TO BUY 137

headstamp of years ago, it now
simply reads “Winchester” or “Win.”
These cases are, as they always have
been, quality component cases. The
Federal Cartridge Company contin¬
ues to produce its great brass, and it
is a favorite of many shooters, myself
included.

The big three companies more
than likely comprise the majority of
the brass that is on hand today, and

for good reason: All three companies
make a good product in a wide selec¬
tion of both pistol and rifle brass and
in all the common calibers available
today. A good percentage of it is
also available as nickel-plated brass,
which is resistant to tarnishing. The
brass produced by these companies
is often sold in bulk bags and must
be properly sized (and sometimes
trimmed) before being loaded. The

Modern Remington cases.

.300 Winchester cases with Winchester’s “W-W Super” headstamp.

138 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

case mouths are often slightly dented
or out of round, a hazard of shipping
in bulk bags. A quick trip through
the resizing die and a good inner
and outer neck chamfer will get the
brass right into shape and ready to be
loaded. These cases are usually very
uniform and can produce some great
shooting ammunition.

Some of the major bullet manu¬
facturers have hopped onto the brass
case train. Nosier produces its own
line of rifle brass, now, and it is
wonderful stuff. The cases are held to
very tight tolerances and sorted out
by weight. Flash holes are checked
for proper alignment and all burrs
are removed. The case mouths are
chamfered inside and out, so these
cases are ready to be primed and
loaded right out of the box. They are
a bit more expensive, but they are
well worth it. Nosier offers its brass

in many of the common calibers,
as well as some of the hard-to-find
rarities such as the .264 Winchester
Magnum, 8mm Remington Magnum,
and even the .280 Remington Ackley
Improved (with a 40-degree shoul¬
der). I’m a big fan of Nosier brass.

Hornady threw its hat in the
component brass ring years ago
with its Frontier line of brass and
ammunition, which was good stuff.

It is now marketed with the Hor¬
nady headstamp, and the cases are
good-quality, very consistent cases.
Hornady is the best source of cases
for the Ruger line of cartridges,
including the RCM (Ruger Compact
Magnum), and the .375 Ruger and
.416 Ruger cartridges so popular in
gun maker’s Hawkeye rifle series.
Hornady also produces affordable
brass for large classic double rifles,
such as the .450-400 3-inch and

Nosier Custom brass is among the finest available. These 8mm Remington Magnum cases are
increasingly hard to find, but Nosier provides component brass for many such rarities.

WHAT TO BUY 139

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

the .500 Nitro Express. I really like
the way the Hornady .416 Rigby
brass shoots out of my CZ550 rifle.
Hornady also produces good pistol
brass, mainly for the larger pistol
rounds like my favorite .45 Colt, the
big .454 Casull, and the bigger yet
.460 S&W. Working in conjunction
with Sturm, Ruger & Co., Hornady
helped to develop the big, honkin’
.480 Ruger pistol round and make
available component brass for this
cartridge, as well. It has also worked
with the Marlin Company to help
develop the .308 Marlin Express
and the .338 Marlin Express, which
help to improve the ballistics of the
classic lever-action gun. Hornady is
a great source for the brass for these
cartridges.

In addition to the variety already
noted, Hornady produces a line of
Match Brass in .308 Winchester and

the behemoth .50 BMG. I haven’t had
the opportunity to load and shoot Mr.
Browning’s beast in Hornady form,
but I can certainly attest to the qual¬
ity of the Hornady .308 Match cases.

I loaded them with IMR4064 and a
Federal Gold Medal Match primer,
launching 150-grain Swift Scirocco

II bullets to print 100-yard three-shot
groups that average between 0.3-inch
and 0.25-inch from my Suzie Q’s 20-
inch barreled Savage bolt-action rifle.
You really can’t ask any more than
that from an out-of-the-box hunting
rifle and a 3-9x scope!

Norma, of Sweden, has produced
great component brass for years.
Strict uniformity, along with an¬
nealed case necks, make for a long-
lasting product that will serve you
well for years. More often than not,
Norma cases come ready to load
out of the box. As a habit, I usu-

Hornady brass cases.

140 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

The beastly .338 Lapua, a long-range affair par excellence.

High-quality
Norma brass
is a loader’s
dream!

ally run the
necks over the
expander ball
of the resizing die
just to give the best
concentricity, and I
give them a quick
inside and outside
chamfering, but
that’s about it. Norma cases have
given me stellar accuracy in both
my .22-250 Rem. and my .300 Win¬
chester Magnum. I had a friend’s
.243 Winchester that went from goat
to hero, just by changing his brass
to Norma’s.

Lapua, originating from Finland,
is also a producer of premium brass
cases. The firm is famous for its
long-range powerhouse .338 Lapua
Magnum, which is well-loved by
military snipers and benchrest
shooters alike. Lapua offers brass

for most, but not all, the popular
rifle calibers. Its lineup includes
some rarities that can be used as the
parent case for many wildcats. For
example, the .220 Russian case is
able to be made into the .22 PPC and
6mm PPC, and the .221 Fireball is
a great base case for the .300 AAC
Blackout cartridge. The Lapua .308
Winchester cases are an excellent
means of making that already inher¬
ently accurate cartridge really shine,
and the .30-06 brass from Lapua can
wring that last bit of accuracy out
of your old, favorite, big-game rifle.
Lapua also manufactures handgun
brass for the .32 S&W Long and the
ever-popular 9mm Luger pistols. All
Lapua brass has proven to me to be
of the best quality available. If you’re
a serious accuracy hound, you really
can’t go wrong in choosing Lapua
brass for your load development.

WHAT TO BUY 141

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Lapua cases. Very high-quality stuff.

Starline makes only pistol brass,
but it is among the best. The head-
stamp features a clever *-* on the
rim. My .45 Colt revolver shoots very
well with Starline brass and, frankly,
regardless the caliber, I’ve never had
a bad experience with it. Not an aw¬
ful lot to discuss, just a continuously
dependable product. I recommend it
for the handgun hunter who wants a
higher level of accuracy.

Lake City brass is of military
origin and offered for sale by many
of the major reloading retailers.

It’s great way to feed your .308
(or 7.62mm NATO) or your .223
(5.56mm NATO). Being designed for
military use, the case walls are often
thicker than the sporting variety, so
either use load data developed for
that thicker military brass or reduce
the loads as recommended in the re¬
loading manuals. Here’s the thought
process behind this practice: The
cartridge outside dimensions must

adhere to the SAAMI specifications,
so a thicker case will result in a
smaller inside dimension (capacity)
and, therefore, a smaller combustion
chamber. Pressures will rise higher
and at a faster rate in thick-walled
military cases, given the same load¬
ing for a non-military case. You must
be sure to sort any military brass
into a separate lot, so that it may be
loaded correctly.

MagTech makes a great lineup of
handgun cases for both pistols and
revolvers, in addition to military rifle
brass. Brass for the .223 Rem., .308
Winchester, .30 Ml Carbine, and .50
BMG are all available unprimed.

When you shoot a rifle that is
chambered for a “proprietary” round
(one that is not chambered by any
other company than the one that
developed it), the availability of
ammunition and brass is limited.
Components, therefore, are precious.
Weatherby was in this category for

142 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

a long while. The Weatherby-brand
brass and ammunition has always
been produced by Norma, and though
other companies produce ammuni¬
tion and components for Weatherby
calibers, if you want that Weatherby
headstamp, Weatherby is the one to
offer it in component form. (Com¬
ponents for some of the less-popular
Weatherby calibers are produced for
Weatherby through Norma alone.)
Lazzeroni is another propriety
cartridge company that produce
its own brass cases for its unique
cartridges. As far as I know, no
other company makes cases for the
Lazzeroni calibers. The same holds
true for Dakota lineup of cartridges.
The 7mm Dakota and .300 Dakota
are probably the most popular among
these chamberings, but you’ll have to
invest in Dakota brass if you choose
to shoot these cartridges. Brass from
any of these makers is of good qual¬
ity and just as capable of having a
long reloading life as that from other
makers, if properly taken care of.

RELOADING PRESSES

For years, I only had access to one
press: my dad’s Lee Turret press. He
bought it when I was an infant, and
he later taught me how to load on it.

It is still in his possession, and it still
works fine. It doesn’t hold the tightest
tolerances in the world, but, if I could
pile up the cartridges it has produced,
your head might spin! It’s made
rounds for three African safaris for
yours truly, not to mention numerous
hunts across North America and the
thousands of rounds spent in practice

and load development for my many
rifles, not to mention all the loading
that press did for friends and rela¬
tives! That says a ton for the durabil¬
ity of this product.

I graduated to a pair of RCBS
presses once I set up my own bench.
Both the Rockchucker and Rock-
chucker II still sit on my bench,
along with some others. The RCBS
Rockchucker was and is the industry
standard, in my opinion. It is a simple
design, with a cast iron “0”-shaped

WHAT TO BUY 143

The classic RCBS Rock Chucker, a press that still sits proudly on the bench at Massaro Ballistic Laboratories!

144 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

frame and a steel ram. It is a single-
stage press, holding only one reload¬
ing die at a time, and this simple
design is the beauty. It can produce
very good ammunition with very
tight tolerances, and the press is built
ruggedly enough to last a lifetime or
more. There are many designs like it,
such as the Lyman Orange Crusher
2 and the Redding Big Boss. With
all of them, heavy, durable frames,
sound-fitting hinges and pins, and the
ability to prime cases on the press
all add up to a great value for the
loader. For my single-stage work, I
like this design. The cast iron frame
gives enough rigidity to ensure
tight tolerances, and the steel ram
withstands the leverage needed for
camming-over brass cases to resize
them properly.

Hornady offers the Lock-N-load
press with a cast alloy frame offset at
30 degrees for ease of access to the
case. Lee makes two similar presses,
one called the Challenger Breech
Lock, the other the Classic Cast.

The Challenger is made from solid
aluminum, while the Classic Cast is
of cast iron. All three come with a
built-in priming tool, and the Breech
Lock has a quick-change die system
that allows you to easily swap out
dies without unscrewing them.

In addition to its classic Rock
Chucker Series, RCBS has devel¬
oped some new models in the “O”-
style design. The Reloader Special
5 is built with tall rods connecting
the top and bottom of the press, an
arrangement that provides enough
space to load the .50 BMG cartridge
and everything smaller. The RCBS

Partner is an inexpensive, entry-
level press constructed of a cast alu¬
minum frame. While not as strong
as cast iron, it is a good press for
those just getting into reloading and
is offered for sale as a kit containing
almost all the other necessary equip¬
ment you need.

RCBS also has a revolution¬
ary new press on the market, the
Summit. This press changes the
entire mechanical idea of the clas¬
sic reloading press by moving the
reloading dies on a large, two-inch
diameter ram downward over the
case, rather than the ram raising the
case into the die. It has a handle
that’s able to be moved to either
side of the press for right- or left-
hand use, and its massive ram has a
built-in grease fitting to keep it well
lubricated. It obtains great leverage,
and if I had to find one fault with the
press it is that it doesn’t have a prim¬
ing attachment. You must prime your
cases with a hand primer. All said,
I’ve really grown to like this press
and use it often.

Redding Reloading has long been
known as a producer of rock-solid
loading equipment. The Big Boss
press I’ve mentioned is one example,
the Ultra Mag press another. A large,
cast iron “C”-frame press, this beast
can easily handle the longest car¬
tridges. The location of the linkage
attachment at the top portion of the
press takes away the possibility of
press flexure, and the wide space
available makes loading the big
Sharps-style cases like the .45-110
and .45-120, as well as Nitro-Express
cases like the .450 NE and .500 NE,

WHAT TO BUY 145

The RCBS Summit press, an entirely new idea in press design.

146 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

The Redding T7 Turret Press.

an easy proposition. Redding presses
feature the company’s Smart Primer
Arm, which swings out of the way on
the upstroke of the ram.

Forster has a really neat press
called the Co-Ax, which uses two
long rods to accurately guide the low¬
er portion of the press up toward the
area that holds the dies. In addition,
the press doesn’t use a threaded bush¬
ing to hold the dies. Instead, there’s
a slotted recess in the upper portion
where the dies snap in. They’re held
in place by the lock ring, without
requiring the die threads to come into

play. It is probably the fastest method
of changing dies in any single-stage
press. Forster has also removed the
need for a shellholder, by creating a
set of spring-loaded jaws that grab
the shell by the recessed cannelure
at the shell’s base. This allows the
press to grab a shell of just about any
design and helps to precisely center
the cartridge. I can attest to the level
of precision and accuracy this press
can produce; some .308 Winchester
ammunition made on a Forster shoots
in the realm of %-MOA, repeatedly.

Turret presses are a great aid to

WHAT TO BUY 147

the pistol reloader, and even the rifle
reloader, because the die holder can
hold three, four, or even seven dies
or accessories at once. Simply turn
the turret on the top of the press and
you have a resizing die, a flaring
die, or seating die. There is little to
no need to screw in and unscrew
dies. The Lee Classic turret press I
mentioned earlier has served me and
my dad very well, making both pistol
and rifle cartridges with relative
ease. Lee still produces it, and it is
a good value for the budget-minded
reloader who doesn’t want to shell
out for a progressive.

Redding makes the T-7 turret press
and, like most of its products, it is a
solid piece of gear. In addition to cast
iron construction, a seven-hole turret,
and the ability to automatically feed
primers, this press features com¬
pound leverage and the same Smart
Primer arm as the Big Boss and the
UltraMag presses. It has plenty of
clearance for long rifle cartridges.

The Lyman T-Mag II is also a
well-made turret press. It features
a six-hole removable turret for ease
of caliber change, as well as a turret
handle for both turning the tur¬
ret quickly and removing the tur¬
ret itself. The T-Mag II comes with
a priming arm and spent primer
catcher, as well.

Dillon Precision has a turret-style
press called the BL550 and, like most
of Dillon’s products, it’s a winner.

It can be used as single-stage type
press, with the benefits of the turret
capability, or upgraded to an auto¬
priming and powder-dispensing behe¬
moth that can crank out vast quanti¬

ties of very good ammunition, nearly
along the lines of a progressive.

Speaking of progressive presses,
these can be the pistol cartridge
reloader’s best friend. Such a press
performs multiple functions every
time you pull on the handle, working
with a rotating plate that will move
the case from station to station.

Progressive presses are set up to
work in this order: Station 1 will dep¬
rime and resize in the resizing die;
many will re-prime on the upstroke,
as an automatic primer feeder deliv¬
ers the new primer from underneath.
Station 2 will flare the case mouth
of the pistol cartridge. Station 3 is a
case-activated powder dispenser, ful¬
ly adjustable so as to deliver a proper
powder charge. (I still advise that
you check it often against your scale,
especially when loading the smaller
pistol cartridges, where a half-grain
of excess powder can cause excessive
and dangerous pressures.) Station 4
seats the bullet and, depending on
whether you choose to use a separate
crimping die, may crimp on the same
stroke. Station 5 can be your separate
crimping stroke. Once everything is
set up properly, five strokes on the
handle should give you a properly
loaded cartridge, with a new one on
every pull thereafter.

Progressives are produced by most
of the major reloading companies.
The RCBS Pro2000 Auto Index is a
well-made piece of gear, with a cast
iron frame and a five-station top.

It comes with the RCBS Uniflow
powder measure (which has a stellar
reputation), and a removable die
plate. That’s a convenient feature if

148 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

The RCBS
Pro2000
Auto Index
progressive
press.

you load more than one caliber, as
you can leave the dies all set up on a
plate and simply swap it for the one
in the press as needed. Shellholder
plates are sold separately, but the
priming strips are included. The only
issue I have with this press is that
the plastic primer strips can gum up
the works if they are not perfectly
aligned, and then it’s a pain in the
proverbial arse to get the piece of
plastic out of the machine. Priming
issues aside, it’s a damned good ma¬
chine. I also understand there’s a
metal tube priming system
available for conversion,
but I haven’t as yet
looked into replacing
the primer strips on
my own press. Being
an auto-indexing
machine (the raising
and lowering of the
ram turns the shell plate
counter-clockwise), you must
work the ram fully each time, so
that the same amount of powder is
dispensed and the shells are equally
resized, flared, etc., in each of those
respective stations.

Hornady sells the Lock-N-load
AP progressive press, which has
many features similar to those of the
Pro2000 from RCBS. Made with a
cast alloy frame, it has a slightly dif¬
ferent indexing mechanism, moving
halfway to the next station on the
downstroke and halfway on the up¬
stroke. Hornady offers a die bushing
system that allows for quicker changes
of dies. Once you get your dies
properly set up, you simply release the
bushings and switch the dies.

Lee Precision makes products
that are among the most affordable,
if not the fanciest. Its progressive
presses are a good value; Lee offers
two models aimed at the high-
volume reloader. The Lee Pro 1000
press is designed to load handgun

WHAT TO BUY 149

cartridges. It has a three-hole top
similar to those on turret presses, a
ProDisk powder dispenser, and an
automatic primer feeder. Cartridges
can be loaded one at a time for fine
adjustment, and the primer will feed
only if a case is present at that sta¬
tion. Lee warns that only Remington
or CCI primers will function properly
through the priming system. To use
other brands, you must purchase
the “explosion shield.” Um, not for
nothing, I’d personally stick with the
Remington or CCI primers. I’m not a
fan of words like “explosion shield.”
Maybe it’s just me.

The Lee Loadmaster progressive
can handle either rifle or pistol cases.
It has a five-hole top that can be
removed or replaced (for multiple die
sets), a bigger steel frame, and a cast
aluminum handle. It’s a good press
for the money. The Loadmaster and
Pro 1000 can be purchased as kits,
complete with the appropriate die
set and shellplate necessary for the
caliber chosen.

Dillon Precision Products makes
the Cadillac of progressive hand¬
gun presses. The XL650 is a no-
nonsense, five-station progressive to
which you manually feed the cases
and bullets. The cases are fed mouth
up into a tube that sets them into the
shellholder. The frame is huge, so
flexure is never an issue. The powder
dispenser is case-activated, so there’s
no chance of powder spilling all over
the bench. Overall operation isn’t
all that much different than with any
other progressive, but the add-ons
are wonderful. There’s an electronic
case feeder that automatically places

the cases mouth up into the feed
tube, and a powder check device
assures you don’t double charge or
forget to charge a case. If it detects
a significant change in powder level,
an alarm goes off to warn you and
prevent a possible tragedy.

The Dillon Square-Deal B has a
unique square-shaped ram, ma¬
chined brass link arm bearings, and
a smaller rotating shell holder. The
primer feed operates on a slide, and
the finished cartridge is ejected down
a chute into a hopper. Both presses
come with a full set of tools to adjust
things, and Dillon offers a lifetime
warranty, whether you purchased the
press new or used. I’ve yet to meet
a reloader who hasn’t been thrilled
with Dillon products.

Whichever brand of progressive
press you choose, be sure and do an
awful lot of homework before you
invest your money. Make sure that a
press’ operation isn’t too complicated
for what you’re after. In fact, I rec¬
ommend watching as many tutorial
videos as possible on all the differ¬
ent makes and models. Seeing the
press you want in action can be very
valuable. Many reloading forums,
too, will have some brutally honest
reviews and helpful hints to make life
easier with such machines.

RELOADING DIES

These pieces of machined bril¬
liance are the unsung heroes of the
reloading process. They get little or
none of the glory, but can and will
make or break your day. Quality
dies set up properly in a good press

150 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Dies for the .33 Winchester, made by Pacific, a predecessor of Hornady reloading dies. Old is not
dead. These give good service.

are the ticket to accuracy. Mis¬
aligned dies or inferior quality dies
will make ammunition that won’t
fit your gun at worst, or won’t shoot
well at best.

Older dies, if well cared for, are
just fine to use. I have an old set of
Pacific dies for the obsolete .33 Win¬
chester that I found for sale at a gun
show. Pacific is long gone, but these
dies looked new in the box and they
work just fine. My Dad’s dies, other
than needing some cleaning, also
still make great ammunition. Still,
like most other components I’ve
covered, reloading dies have made
progress and benefitted from better
technology.

Most if not all companies use a
standard 7 / 8 -inch/14 thread on the die
bodies, unless you bump up to the
big safari calibers like the .450 Rigby
and .500 Nitro Express. These bigger
rounds use dies with a thread size of
1-inch/14, and you will need to buy
an adapter bushing for your press to
use these. The basic design of the re¬
sizing, flaring, and bullet seating dies
haven’t changed all that much, but I
think there are some advancements
that should be highlighted.

For the bolt-action fan, there are
neck-sizing dies available for just
about every bottlenecked cartridge.
The advantage of the neck-sizing die
is that the body of the case doesn’t

WHAT TO BUY 151

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Lee Carbide pistol dies, shown here in .45 ACP.

become over-worked, thereby ex¬
tending the life of your cases, plus
the case is perfectly formed to the
chamber of the rifle in which it was
fired. The drawback is that it is rifle
specific and can’t be used in any
other rifle of the same caliber. Red¬
ding, RCBS, Hornady, Lyman, and
most others offer neck-sizing dies. It
will be a bit more difficult to close
the bolt on a neck-sized cartridge, but
that usually comes with an increase
in accuracy.

Carbide pistol dies are a won¬
derful advancement. The long and
the short of these is that they don’t
require the cases to be lubricated.
There’s a carbide insert inside the
pistol die, and it is much harder than
traditional steel. These dies make
the high-volume pistol loader’s job

much shorter. No sticky lubricant to
apply or remove, just crank the cases
through the resizing die. Again,
most companies offer a carbide
pistol die set.

Competition-style dies for rifle
cartridges are definitely a worth¬
while investment. The bullet seating
dies have a micrometer adjustment
on the top of the die that provides
for precise seating depth. This al¬
lows complete control of cartridge
overall length, and the spring-loaded
micrometer holds adjustment much
better than the traditional threaded
rod style.

Redding competition dies rate
among the best, and there are no
flies on the RCBS or Forster models,
either. Hornady offers a replacement
seating stem for its Dimension seating

152 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

dies, which convert a standard seat¬
ing die into a micrometer-adjustable
seater. Neat idea!

I came across a little reloading die
company out of Georgia by the name
of Whidden Gunworks. This com¬
pany offers a micrometer-adjustable
seating die with a floating bushing
that not only allows precise seating
depth, but also increases bullet con¬
centricity. I like the way this up and
coming company thinks!

Each brand of dies has its own
unique features, and I’ll do my best
to briefly outline them here.

Hornady has some interesting die
features. The first I like is the ellipti¬
cal expander ball, in which the diam¬
eter of the ball grows as you raise the
case into the die. The one place I find
this most useful is during the creation
of wildcat brass. For instance, the

.35 Whelen is nothing more than a
.30-06 Springfield necked up to hold
.358-inch diameter bullets, so, if you
wanted to make some brass for your
Whelen out of .30-06 brass, this ex¬
pander ball will work the neck more
slowly, thereby reducing stress. I like
this feature, and Hornady sells it as a
replacement part for RCBS-type dies.

Another Hornady feature I ad¬
mire, though small it may be, is its
lock ring. All lock rings have wrench
flats, which aren’t a bad thing, but
the part I like about Hornady’s is
that the screw to lock the ring down
doesn’t fight against the die body
threads. The ring is split, so the
screw tightens the ring against itself.
Because of this design, there’s no
risk of marring the die body threads
if someone gets gorilla because the
lock ring won’t move.

Redding .308 Winchester competition dies.

WHAT TO BUY 153

A Hornady
three-die set,
with split
lock rings.

One feature I’m on the fence
about is Hornady’s floating bullet
seater. It is designed to seat bullets
more concentrically, because it rides
on the case neck and the bullet. I’ve
had good and bad experiences with
it. The good times worked out just
fine, but, with bullets that have a
long ogive, I’ve had this rig leave

an impressed ring around the bullet,
about halfway down the ogive. Per¬
haps I had a set of dies that were out
of adjustment for some reason, but
it made me insane. When I loaded
round-nosed bullets, there were no
issues whatsoever.

Redding Reloading, from my
home state of New York, makes some

Hornady dies, with a floating bullet seater.

154 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

of my favorite dies ever. The toler¬
ances are very tight, the machine
work is clean, and the structural
integrity is about the best you’ll find.
Redding uses very good steel in its
dies. The standard adjustment at the
top of the dies are made of blued,
knurled steel, and all the die sets
are shipped with a spare decapping
pin and a hex wrench for adjusting
the lock rings. The lock rings are
held in place by placing a piece of
lead shot between the set screw and
the die body, so the threads can’t be
boogered up. The inside of the dies
are all polished to a bright sheen,
ultrasonically cleaned, and coated in
a rust preventative for shipping. The
rust preventative must be removed
with a solvent before using the dies,
but that is a relatively simple process.
I find Redding dies to be among the
finest you can buy, and you won’t be

sorry for choosing them. The plastic
die box even doubles as a loading
block, with recessed holes to hold
the cartridges. When it comes to
producing very accurate ammunition,
Redding knows how to pay attention
to fine details. The company also has
a great customer service department,
with folks more than willing to help
and answer your questions.

RCBS has long been the industry
standard for many reloading tools.

It sort of set the benchmark, back
in the day. Standard RCBS dies are
a great value and, with proper care,
should last you a lifetime. They are
available in almost every caliber,
from the teeny . 17 Remington up to
the big .500 Jeffrey and .505 Gibbs;
the RCBS custom shop will go far
beyond that. Die adjustments are held
in place with a %-inch nut, and the
set screw on the lock ring is made of

Redding dies are among the very best constructed reloading dies available.

WHAT TO BUY 155

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

brass so the die’s body threads won’t
be mangled. Lock rings have wrench
flats and, generally speaking, the
de-priming pins are interchangeable.
RCBS is a great source of forming
dies that are used to convert brass
from one case to another. If you have
a firearm chambered for an obsolete
cartridge and brass is impossible
to come by but can be made from
another case with common attributes,
these dies can breathe new life into
the that old gun.

Where applicable, RCBS offers
two seater plugs for its seating dies,
for loading either spitzer-point bul¬
lets or round-nosed bullets. This is a
good investment if you load for both
types of bullets, as it won’t mar or
crush the bullet meplat. RCBS also
produces a series of X dies that are
designed to stop the elongation of

brass cases during the sizing process
by using a special mandrel inside the
resizing die. This design limits the
amount of brass that flows forward
into the neck during sizing. While
I haven’t used these dies myself, I
have friends who report that they
do reduce the amount of brass flow,
enough to almost eliminate the need
to trim brass. I have found RCBS
customer service to be impeccable.

Lyman has produced great reload¬
ing tools for many years, and its
many tools have been relied upon
by legions of shooters to make great
ammo. Lyman Precision reloading
dies are no exception to the compa¬
ny’s solid reputation. Made of quality
steel and well polished, they are
available in most popular calibers, as
well as in the blackpowder calibers
of the late 1800s, like the .45-70, .45-

An RCBS rifle reloading die set, shown here for the .270 Winchester Short Magnum.

156 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

I

I

Lee pistol dies.

90, .45-110, and .50-90. One product
from Lyman I particularly enjoy is
the Universal Decapping Die, as it
has a hardened decapping pin and
assembly that work perfectly for
punching out the crimped-in primers
in military brass.

Lee Precision offers a plethora
of dies. They are made to be afford¬
able, using a rubber gasket to lock
down the dies in lieu of a set screw,
aluminum lock rings in lieu of steel,
etc. This affordability should not be
construed as inferiority. Lee dies are
very capable of producing quality
ammunition. They are a great value,
for each die set comes with a shell-
holder, powder scoop, and charge
table of appropriate and suitable
powder charges. I am a huge fan of
the Lee Factory Crimp Die. It gives a
roll or taper crimp (depending on ap¬

plication) unlike any other, and I use
it often, especially with my .45 ACP
ammunition. It leaves the case mouth
nice and square for proper headspac¬
ing, yet holds the bullet as snugly as
if it were a babe at mother’s bosom.

Dillon has some innovative
features in both its pistol and rifle
dies. The unique feature of the rifle
dies that I enjoy is the placement of
the expander ball. Instead of placing
it at the bottom of the die near the
shellholder, as many others do, it is
higher in the die, where the leverage
of the press is much stronger and
can be better utilized. This allows
for smoother expansion of the case
neck. Dillon pistol dies feature a clip
retainer on the top of the seating die,
allowing you to change bullet seaters
from round-nosed to semi-wadcutter
or the like in a flash. Remove the

WHAT TO BUY 157

clip, switch seaters, and your die is
still perfectly adjusted for the case
you’re loading. I’ve seen these Dillon
dies in action on the Dillon 550B
progressive, and they work just fine.

POWDER MEASURERS

The ability to dispense powder in
a quick and accurate manner is very
helpful, especially to the shooter
who needs to produce large quanti¬
ties of ammunition. I’m old fash¬
ioned, and often I still scoop powder
by hand when making rifle loads
that are destined for the hunting
fields or for accuracy testing from
the bench. However, the IDPA pistol
shooter or a shooter who wants to
shoot 3-Gun competition wants large
quantities of ammunition that might
not possess hair-splitting accuracy,
but will suffice for the job at hand.

A powder measure can certainly
speed the loading process along, and
the powder measures of today are
capable of dropping a very precise
charge. Most are threaded to fit the
7 / 8 -inch/14 threads needed to mount
on a reloading press.

The basic construction of the pow¬
der measure hasn’t really changed
over the years, but its overall con¬
struction and accuracy has. Now, I’ve
never shot in a formal, officiated ben-
chrest competition, so I was shocked
to find out that the serious benchrest
folks don’t weigh their charges,
rather they measure by volume from
a powder measure. Why? The large
plastic hopper that holds the powder
is still the same as it was in yester¬
year, but the adjustment mechanisms

have come leaps and bounds.

Redding leads the field in ultra-
accurate powder dispensers, in my
opinion. Machine work on the mov¬
ing parts is held to extreme toler¬
ances, and Redding has different
models to cover a variety of loading
needs. The powder charge adjust¬
ment has a high-quality micrometer
that won’t suffer backlash or come
out of adjustment. The Model 3BR
is a flexible unit, with two chambers
available. The pistol chamber throws
between one and 10 grains, and the
universal chamber throws between
five and 100 grains. The Bench Rest
model, the BR-30, throws 10 to 50
grains and was designed to work well
for large-capacity handgun cases
and medium-sized rifles cases. The
Competition Model 10X is formatted
around pistol and small rifle volume
capacities, those between one and 25
grains, while the LR1000 is designed
for the large magnum rifle cases like
the .416 Rigby and .338 Lapua, this
model being capable of throwing up
to 140 grains of powder. Redding’s
Robin Sharpless and I had a great
conversation about powder measures,
and he indicated to me that the best
and most accurate results occur in the
middle third of the capacity of the
measure. You can see that Redding
offers a measure for just about every
application, so you won’t be stretch¬
ing the limits of the capacity.

RCBS still produces the venerable
UniFlow powder measure, and it’s as
good as it ever was. It has large and
small micrometer adjustment screws,
for use with different size chambers,
and throughout the range of the two

158 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Redding’s powder measure.

WHAT TO BUY 159

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

can throw up to 50 grains of powder.
It is threaded to be used in a reload¬
ing press. The RCBS Competition
powder measure has a micrometer
adjustment (unlike the UniFlow),
which can be used to accurately
observe the setting for your powder
charge of choice and reproduce the
load to save time in the setup of the
powder measure. The RCBS Quick
Change measure gives the most flex¬
ibility in the line; with the pull of
a pin and a change of the metering
assembly, you can load light pistol
loads one minute and heavy magnum
rifle loads the next.

Lyman offers the No. 55 powder
measure, which measures up to 200
grains of powder, and Lee has its
Perfect Powder Measure that displays
the volume in cubic centimeters.
Hornady has a powder measure in
its Lock-N-Load series of reloading
tools, with a broad range of 0.5 to 75
grains of powder.

Whichever measure you choose,
look carefully and be sure it will dis¬
pense powder in the range of weights
you intend to load. Keep your measure
clean and well lubricated and it should
give you many years of good results.

ELECTRONIC POWDER DISPENSERS

I don’t easily leave the path of
traditional reloading gear. Such tools
were the ones I was taught with, they
worked for me, and, so, I saw no real
reason to change it. One piece of gear
has brought me around, though, and
that’s the electronic powder dispens¬
er. These are simple, really. A motor-
driven powder dispenser dumps a

specific powder charge (measured
down to 0.1-grain) into the pan of
an electronic scale. My buddy Mark
“Pig Newton” Nazi sang its praises,
and Mark is a loader whose opinion
I respect. Still, being a traditional¬
ist, I didn’t buy into the idea until I
tried it. Well, it worked so well that
not only could I not find fault with
it, I went out and got one for myself.

I picked up the same one Mark had,
the RCBS Charge Master 1500, and
gave it a workout.

Simple to assemble, I zeroed the
scale, added my powder of choice,
punched in the desired charge weight,
and voila\ I checked the charges
thrown on my trusty ol’ beam scale,
and they were spot on. I know digital
scales have a reputation for drift¬
ing from zero and are supposedly
affected by barometric pressure, but
I haven’t had a charge thrown that
didn’t measure properly on a beam
scale. I do zero the electronic scale
often, but the loads are very consis¬
tent. I love the feature that automati¬
cally dispenses another charge once
you’ve replaced the pan and the
scale reads zero, plus the fact that
the display even gives the count of
the loads dispensed (a good way to
double-check how many cases you
think you’ve filled, if you’re filling
many cases as a group before moving
on to bullet seating). The machine is
capable of storing your favorite load
weights for recall the next time you
load, and, if a charge is thrown more
than 0.1-grain on the heavy side, an
audible alarm notifies you. The only
warning I could give you about this
tool is to make certain you close the

160 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

The RCBS ChargeMaster 1500 electronic scale and powder dispenser.

little rotary port that drains the pow¬
der out of the reservoir. If you don’t,
you’ll dump powder all over your
bench, just like I did!

RCBS isn’t the only company
making this type of rig. Lyman makes
its GEN5 and GEN6 models and.

if they’re made as well as the older
Lyman models, the company has two
winners. My pal Steve Darling has an
older model Lyman electric dispenser
that gives great results. Hornady has
a Lock-N-Load electronic dispenser
complete with all the bells and

WHAT TO BUY 161

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

The digital display and powder pan of the ChargeMaster 1500.

162 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

The plastic powder hopper.

whistles you might want, like speed
adjustment, a large display, and more.

The speed of these machines is a
huge time-saver, as long as you keep
an eye on things like the electronic
scale and weigh the charges on your
beam scale every so often. Just one
little note about the manual and
electronic dispensers that use a plastic
hopper to store powder (and that
pretty much includes all models I’m
aware of). I’ve read numerous reviews
and comments about certain types of
powder “melting” to the plastic if left
in the hopper for long periods of time.

I’ve never had it happen to me, but
I’ve seen photos, so I’d recommend
that you empty the hopper immedi¬
ately after you conclude your loading
session. Better to be safe than sorry!

Oh, and, one more thing: Never
use a powder dispenser to measure
blackpowder. Never! These dispens¬
ers are capable of producing static
electricity, which will very easily
ignite black powder. These tools are
designed for smokeless powder only,
and there are special tools out there
for measuring blackpowder, which
feature no plastic parts.

WHAT TO BUY 163

CHAPTER 7

THE RIGHT COMBINATION
FOR THE JOB

A tight group from the .338 Winchester Magnum, less than one MOA!

ith the wide variety of
powder companies and
powder shapes and powder
burn rates, combined with what is
likely a larger variety of projectile
shapes and sizes and construction,
what do you do with it all? Well,

dear reader, you pick up several
reloading manuals and you read the
ink off the pages. Not every manual
tests a particular bullet weight/car¬
tridge combination with every single
available powder suitable for it, so
only through diligent studying will

164 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

you gain a thorough knowledge of
powders that have a burn rate ap¬
propriate for your intended use. As a
handloader, you owe it to yourself to
build up your loads safely, so as not
to exceed pressure limits. We are all
after the same end result: To deliver
the bullet to the target accurately and
consistently, whether that target is a
paper bull’s-eye target or the game
animal of your dreams.

There is a lot of fun in the quest
for your own custom load, and dur¬
ing the processes you’ll meet many
people and make some great friends
who enjoy handloading as much as
you do. One thing is for certain: once
you achieve a level of accuracy you
haven’t experienced before and the
sense of pride when you shoot that
sweetheart of a rifle you’ve loaded for,
you’ll never look at factory ammuni¬
tion in the same light!

LOADING FOR THE HUNT

The benchrest shooter who aims
only at paper targets isn’t often con¬
cerned with the structural integrity
of the projectile, so long as it deliv¬
ers the accuracy they’re longing for.
Hunters, on the other hand, have a
second part to the equation, and that
is how a chosen bullet will perform
once it’s been delivered to the target.
Will it over- or under-penetrate?

Will it quickly and humanely dis¬
patch the game animal? Will it un¬
necessarily destroy the meat or pelt?
Is the cartridge chosen suitable for
delivering the proper amount of kill¬
ing energy on the game animal at the
distances anticipated? I will briefly
touch upon these points, as entire

careers have been made (or broken)
debating them.

As a comparison, target shooters
want the most consistent and accu¬
rate product available. Bullet weight
should be held to very tight tolerances,
usually in a configuration conducive to
long-range accuracy. The long, sleek,
hollowpoint bullets reign supreme in
this realm. Berger VLDs and Sierra
MatchKings quickly come to mind,
as favorite choices. Both have a long
ogive (or curved nose section), and
feature a boat-tail design. This aids in
minimizing the affects of wind drift
and drag for better trajectory.

The true target bullet does not take
into account the ability to kill game,
for that is not its intended purpose.
Rather, they are made to fly truer than
true, with repeatable results. Often the
bullets themselves are (or should be)
weighed, to hold tolerances even tight¬
er, as are the cartridge cases. These
cases are hand trimmed to a precisely
uniform length, using the best brass
money can buy. Match grade primers
get the nod, and all powder charges are
weighed on a scale. This will yield the
best results. The powder charge and
type is experimented with, (adhering
to the safe guidelines of the loading
manual, of course), until the most ac¬
curate results are found; variations of
as little as a tenth of a grain of powder
can produce appreciable differences
in accuracy. This often requires an
awful lot of time at the bench, and
once that “magic” load is found, it is
guarded like a beautiful girlfriend at a
nightclub. Copious amounts of notes
are kept, regarding weather conditions
at the range, pressure signs, seating

THE RIGHT COMBINATION FORTHE JOB 165

The Hornady GMX is
a stoutly constructed
bullet, one capable of
good accuracy and
neatly dispatching
game animals, as
evidenced by its fine
ability to mushroom.

depth, accuracy, etc. Many times, the
benchrest shooter will end up with
three or four different loadings for a
particular rifle, using different brands
or weights of bullets.

One of the major differences in
the ammunition I produce at Massaro
Ballistic Laboratories is that I treat
all my clients’ hunting rounds in the
same manner I would treat benchrest
target rounds, and that makes a big
difference in the performance of their
hunting rifles. It also imparts an awful
lot of confidence to the hunter, when
the shot presents itself. Of course,
the hunter must take into account the
structure and strength of their chosen
bullet and determine if it’s proper for
the intended quarry. This is sometimes

a complicated task. In spite of all the
wonderful scopes, rifles, camouflage
patterns, bullets, boots, and knives
available, our goal as hunters has
remained the same from time imme¬
morial: to quickly and cleanly dispatch
the game animal we are pursuing.

As rifle and pistol shooters, the
bullet and only the bullet is the single
part of the equation that touches the
animal. As handloaders, we can and
should tailor the bullet and cartridge
to the job. I will offer the following as
a loose guide to choosing the caliber/
bullet combination for different hunt¬
ing scenarios. Please don’t send hate
mail if you have a different combina¬
tion that works well for you. I under¬
stand that everyone has their favorite

166 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

setup and, with sensible parameters,
there’s no wrong answer. Still, I make
my living assembling handmade
cartridges, and much of my work is for
hunters pursuing dangerous game in
Africa. Since the lives of those hunters
depends, in large part, on what their
bullets do when they make contact
with something higher on the food
chain than them, what I have to say
should at least carry some weight.

For the varmint hunter, two types of
bullets are predominant. The extreme¬
ly frangible hollowpoint will decimate
prairie dogs, woodchucks, and ground
squirrels. Made to break apart easily,
they offer up a whole bunch of hydrau¬
lic shock to create the famous “red
mist,” which generally means a fairly

instantaneous kill. Speer TNTs, Berger
VLDs, and Nosier Ballistic Tips are all
good choices for this kind of hunting.
The second type of varmint bullet, one
popular with serious varmint hunters
who pursue the furbearers, is the full
metal jacket. These provide almost no
expansion whatsoever, so as to poke a
caliber-sized hole through the animal
and best preserve the pelt.

The most popular varmint calibers
run from the .17 Remington up though
the .25-caliber bores. Some folks
enjoy using their favorite deer rifle
for varmints and, with proper bullets,
that combination can work just fine.
Usually, varmint hunters like a flat¬
shooting cartridge, as prairie dogs and
coyotes can present distant shots. Be

THE RIGHT COMBINATION FORTHE JOB 167

Winchester .224-inch 55-grain FMJs can be a useful tool for the varmint hunter who wants to
preserve the pelts.

cautious developing your handloads,
watching for pressure signs, as you
try to eke the most velocity you can
from your chosen varmint caliber. A
boat-tail bullet can help buck the wind,
especially with lighter caliber bullets,
which are more affected by wind drift.
These loads often require a higher
level of accuracy, in order to reliably
connect on the smaller targets that
varmints present.

I spent quite a bit of time develop¬
ing loads for my own .22-250 Rem¬
ington, using Hodgdon’s H380 powder
and 53-grain Sierra HP MatchKing
bullets, until it printed three-shot
groups of Vg-inch. My rifle has a
sp or ter-weight barrel, so it heats up
faster than the bull barrel so common
among varmint rifles. My dad likes a
full-pipe bolt-action .223 Remington,

which shoots similar groups using
Hodgdon’s H335 backing the same
bullet I use in the .22-250, though at
a slightly lower velocity. Our friend
Col. Le Frogg is a proponent of the
.17 Remington, and he shoots the di¬
minutive cartridge very well. The tiny
25- and 30-grain Berger hollowpoints
at almost 4,000 fps certainly create
the red mist, and pelt damage is mini¬
mal. In windy conditions, he favors a
.25-06 with 87-grain bullets.

Whitetail deer, mule deer, and
pronghorn antelope-sized game can be
and often are taken with a wide range
of cartridges and all sorts of bullets.

In the South, where deer tend to be
smaller, the .22 and 6mm calibers
are very popular. These cartridges
are also often the first rifle of young
shooters, because of the low level of

168 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

recoil. When it comes to hunting deer¬
sized game, based on my own experi¬
ences, I think these cartridges are
best reserved for the well-seasoned
rifleman who will wait for the perfect
broadside shot. I also feel that a rifle
in a .25-caliber through the .270 bore,
loaded down to reduce recoil, is a bet¬
ter choice for the beginner, as they of¬
fer a heavier bullet. Still, if the .22 or
6mm is your choice, I feel it would be
wise to take advantage of the newer
developments in bullet technology
and use a premium mono-metal or
bonded-core bullet to make sure the
bullet reaches the animal’s vitals with¬
out premature breakup. For longer
shots, say out beyond 250 yards, the
light bullets made for these calibers
can be more drastically affected by
the wind, so, if such conditions are
what you anticipate, try and choose a
bullet to build your handloads around
that will best buck the wind and help
you hit your target.

The deer and antelope cartridges
that make the most sense to me are
between .257-inch and .308-inch in
diameter. Each of the calibers offers
mild, medium, spicy, and raucous

cartridges. Historically, the .250
Savage, 7x57mm Mauser, .30-30
Winchester, and .308 Winchester
have earned great reputations for
being “easy shooters.” They bring
to the table a classic blend of killing
power, accuracy, and low recoil. All
(with the exception of the relatively
slow .30-30), can be used to 300-plus
yards by an experienced shooter who
has familiarized themselves with the
rifle and load, yet none should cause
the dreaded flinch. These all have
become classic deer calibers, in no
small part because a standard cup-
and-core bullet performs very well at
their moderate velocities.

Stepping things up a bit, the .25-06,
.270 Winchester, .280 Remington, and
.30-06 Springfield all have a larger
case, which equates to more powder
capacity and, therefore, higher veloci¬
ties. This higher velocity creates three
things: more energy, flatter trajec¬
tory, and more recoil. Speeds in these
rounds have not yet reached the point
where bullet breakup is a problem,
but the use of a premium bullet is not
a ridiculous prospect. For all-around
use, this class of cartridge makes an

The sweet¬
shooting .308
Winchester is
known for its
accuracy.

THE RIGHT COMBINATION F0RTHE JOB 169

A great, flat-shooting deer round, the .25-06 Remington is a very accurate cartridge. This tight
group was delivered from a Tikka T3 rifle.

awful lot of sense. You can choose
the bullet diameter you like best, and
there’s probably going to be a case
based on the .30-06 for you. I’ve never
been on a hunt where the use of the
.30-06 Springfield has been frowned
upon, if any .30-caliber was deemed
suitable for the intended game. There’s
nothing wrong with Jack O’Connor’s
pet .270 Winchester, either, and, with
the bullets available today, I’m certain
he’d be grinning like a Cheshire cat.
Performance on game has dramatically
increased with this round, thanks to
the availability of projectiles that will
stay together once fur is breached.

Crank it up another notch to the
.257 Weatherby Magnum, .264 Win¬
chester Magnum, .270 WSM, 7mm
Remington Magnum, and my favorite,
the .300 Winchester Magnum, and
velocities increase 200 to 350 feet

per second. Powder consumption also
increases by 30 to 40 percent or so.
This is where the use of standard cup-
and-core bullets can make a mess on
deer-sized game, when used up close
at full-house velocities. Truly, these
cases call for the premium bullet.
Magnum primers are usually required
to ignite the large powder charges.

When it comes to long-range
shooting, the rounds in this last-men¬
tioned class are my favorite balance of
flat trajectory and acceptable recoil.
Yes, in the Northeast deer and bear
woods where I live, a case of this
capacity is usually unwarranted. The
lighter cases already mentioned will
do the job, when shots are within 200
yards. But, follow my thinking for a
second: As a handloader, I can safely
and effectively reduce the velocity
of my Winchester Model 70 in .300

170 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

These .300 Winchester Magnum cartridges were loaded with the 180-grain Swift Scirocco II, a bullet
tough enough to easily withstand the high velocities the case is able to produce.

Winchester Magnum (that fits me
like a glove) to perform like a .308
Winchester or .30-06 Springfield. I
cannot do the same in reverse with
either of those latter two cases. Are
you starting to get the gist of this
chapter, now?

Bring the dial to Nigel Tufnel’s
proverbial “11” and you’ll see folks
hunting deer-sized game with the big
sticks: 7mm STW and 7mm Remington
Ultra Magnum, .300 Weatherby Mag¬
num, .300 Remington Ultra Magnum,
and the beastly .30-378 Weatherby
Magnum. These are some huge cases,
ones with capacities that sometimes
exceed 100 grains of powder. Their
velocities are way up there. If these
tickle your fancy, so be it, I won’t
judge, but be sure and use only the
best of bullets, so you have something
to eat after you pull the trigger! 01’

Grumpy Pants picked up a .300 RUM
for long-range caribou on Quebec’s
tundra, and it works fine. He and I often
butt heads about whether I can make
the same long-range shot he can with
that big case, if I’m shooting my .300
Winchester. He insists the 180-grain
bullet leaving the muzzle at 3,350 fps
allows him to all but eliminate hold¬
over out to 300 yards, while I maintain
that my 180-grain bullet flying at a
muzzle velocity of 2,950 fps is enough
for me to hit the target with a six-inch
holdover at the same distance. I know
my rifle as well as he knows his, and I’d
like to think I can shoot as well as he
can. His rifle kicks a hell of a lot harder
and seems to waste more meat, but him
being my dad, I often shake my head
and walk away muttering.

Some guys love the bigger bores
(yup, count me among them), and like

THE RIGHT COMBINATION F0RTHE JOB 171

The .45-70 Government with a 305-grain hollowpoint makes a great deer and black bear load for the
thick woods, where shots are at close range.

172 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

to use them on deer-sized game, sim¬
ply because they are such fans of the
rifles. If this is you, the 8mm Magnum
and .338 bore fans, you can effec¬
tively use your favorite rifles on deer¬
sized game by choosing the lightest
bullets available. The 180-grain
bullets of any manufacture are avail¬
able for the 8mm bore, and there is a
decent selection of .338-inch diameter
bullets suitable for deer hunting; the
Barnes TSX in 160- and 185-grain
and the Nosier Ballistic Tip 180-grain
bullet come quickly to mind. In the
.358-inch caliber, Hornady, among
others, makes a great 200-grain bullet
that can be served up at deer-worthy
velocities without damaging too
much meat, and even the venerable
.375-inch bore has a 235-grain listing
that provides a great opportunity for
taking your big gun out into the deer
woods. I like a Barnes TSX 235-grain
in my .375 H&H Magnum for deer
and bear in my native Adirondacks.
Many .45-70s see duty in the deer
woods, too, and although limited in
range by the round’s rainbow-like tra¬
jectory, this old classic has accounted
for more than its fair share of game. A
305-grain hollowpoint has performed
just fine in Dad’s Browning Model
1886. Again, choosing a bullet to suit
the task at hand is part of the fun of
being a handloader!

Handgun hunters who choose to
pursue deer-sized game should prob¬
ably look to cartridges in the .357
Magnum class as a minimum, using
heavy-for-caliber bullets of good
construction, to be sure the vitals are
reached. The .41 Magnum, 10mm
Auto, .44 Magnum, .45 ACP, and

.45 (Long) Colt are better choices,
as they throw heavier projectiles.
Being proficient with your weapon
and having great confidence in your
ammunition is a must for any hunter,
but particularly so for the handgun
hunter. Hours spent shooting at the
bench at different ranges with your
handloaded ammunition will help you
guarantee success.

Let’s move up the ladder to the
next size of big game, to the brown
bear, elk, moose, and the large
African antelope species, such as
wildebeest, kudu, and eland. Game
of this size is what originally started
the great Elmer Keith versus Jack
O’Connor celebrity death match,
back in the day, the big-slow-bullet-
for-penetration versus the speedy-
light-bullet-for-hydraulic-shock
argument. Where does this argument
stand now?

If, today, we had access only to
the bullets available in the 1940s and
’50s, I would have to have taken the
side of Elmer Keith and big/slow.

Of the standard cup-and-core bullet,
Keith praised its virtues as being
capable of penetration. I agree with
him. O’Connor, on the other hand,
believed that a standard bullet from
a smaller caliber, when placed in
the proper location, would kill just
as well. He wasn’t totally wrong,
because that was a man who could
slip a bullet exactly where it needed
to go—but many hunters lack the
patience to pick the shot the way Jack
O’Connor did.

I’ll leave the judge’s decision to
history, but what I do want to say is
this: The .270 Winchester about which

THE RIGHT COMBINATION F0RTHE JOB 173

The author’s .300 Winchester Magnum, loaded with 200-grain Swift A-Frames, worked just fine on
safari, in South Africa.

174 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

O’Connor waxed so poetically has
much more muscle now, thanks to ad¬
vanced bullet technology that simply
wasn’t available back in O’Connor’s
time. Whereas the venerable Keith
poo-pooed the idea of using .270s
and even .30-06s on Elk, today’s stout
bullets such as the Swift A-Frame,
Hornady GMX, Barnes TSX, Nosier
Partition andAccubond, and North
Fork will make that .270 or ought-six
into a perfectly viable rifle for all the
above mentioned species.

I was shocked, while research¬
ing my first safari, one in pursuit of
gemsbok, kudu, eland, etc., to find
my guide recommended bringing my
favorite deer rifle, a .300 Winchester
Magnum. Surely I thought I would
need a much bigger rifle for the pur¬
suit of the larger African plains game
species! Nope. Modern bullets had
already proven to my PH that the .300
had adequate killing power, and my
familiarity with the rifle would ensure
I could place the bullet precisely

where instructed. For that adventure
with my .300,1 chose the 200-grain
Swift A-Frame (to hedge my bets
against the largest of antelope, the
eland), and had a great time with it.
This combination would also very
effectively take moose and elk here in
North America.

The .338 Winchester Magnum has
long been a favorite for elk hunters,
and that makes sense. The larger-
diameter bullets, those weighing
between 200 and 250 grains, have
a more dramatic effect on the large
cervids and antelope. The .338s and
.35-caliber rifles also make a great
choice for black bear. Yes, I’m fully
aware that many bears are taken with
common deer calibers, but, if you’ve
ever had to look for a wounded bear
in the willow thickets of Quebec,
you might understand why I prefer a
heavier projectile. Bears have teeth
and claws, after all! The .338s and
.35s can be loaded with 200-grain
bullets for lighter game, then revved

THE RIGHT COMBINATION F0RTHE JOB 175

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Flat-point and cup-point North Fork solids in the .375-inch caliber, both weighing 300 grains. Both
are suitable for the largest African game animals.

up with a 250-grain bullet for moose
and eland. If you don’t plan on leav¬
ing the North American continent on
your hunting adventures, a .338- or
.35-bore rifle can make a great com¬
panion to your favorite deer rifle to
round out your arsenal.

The biggest mammals on Earth
require a large-bore rifle with ad¬
equate killing power. In this group of
animals I shall include bison, brown
bear, hippopotamus, Cape buffalo, and
elephant—the dangerous game. Here
in North America, we normally don’t
have a legally established caliber mini¬
mum, but they certainly do in Africa.

The sheer size of bison and the fe¬
rocity of a brown bear should indicate
that something large is required, and
I think that the .338-inch diameter
cartridges are a sensible minimum.
They can launch a high sectional
density, 250-grain bullet at velocities
from 2,400 fps to 2,800 fps, gener¬

ating a sensible amount of kinetic
energy to handle these huge animals.
The various .35 calibers, like the .35
Whelen, .350 Remington Magnum,
and the .358 Norma Magnum, are
also well suited, as is the venerable
.375 Holland & Holland Magnum.

No one wants to face a wounded
grizzly bear in an alder thicket, so
be sure and use something befitting
these great bruins. For these powerful
cartridges, the Nosier Partition, Swift
A-Frame, Barnes TSX, Woodleigh
Weldcore, and Speer Grand Slam are
all great choices for the biggest of
North American animals.

The dangerous game of Africa
present a unique conundrum. Most
African countries require a mini¬
mum bore diameter of .375-inch for
hunting the Big Five or Dangerous
Seven, and I think this is a sensible
minimum. The 9.3mm (.366-inch
diameter) cartridges are allowed

176 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

in some places, Zimbabwe comes
to mind, but, generally speaking, I
believe the power of the .375 H&H
Magnum or .375 Ruger is what is
needed to cleanly take these very
large creatures. Certainly, leopard
and even lion can effectively be taken
with lesser calibers, and that is legal
in some countries. But, the Cape buf¬
falo and, especially, elephant, require
a large bore and a good bullet. There
are many big-bores to choose from
for game like this. The most popular,
far and away, is the aforementioned
.375 Holland & Holland Magnum.

It is a flexible cartridge with a wide
range of bullets ranging from 210
grains up to and including some
African-made 380-grain bullets. The
classic combination uses a 300-grain
bullet driven to about 2,500 feet per
second. Using a medium- to slow-

burning powder, that velocity can be
easily reached. I like to load my .375
H&H with IMR4064, IMR4350, or
Reloder 15. Many powders in this
realm can produce both excellent
velocity and accuracy.

Buffalo can live up to their reputa¬
tion as “Black Death.” To take them
cleanly and quickly demands a pre¬
mium bullet. The same bullets I men¬
tioned for brown bear and bison will
perform well on Cape buffalo. For the
African elephant, using a .375 solid (a
bullet constructed of a homogenous
metal, or appearing as a steel-covered
lead bullet), is most definitely re¬
quired. The skull of an elephant has
more than two feet of honeycombed
bone that must be penetrated to reach
the brain. A Barnes Banded Solid,
Hornady DGS, North Fork Solid, or
Woodleigh Solid should do the trick.

The .416 Remington Magnum is a good choice of cartridge for the biggest game. It is shown here
with 400-grain Swift A-Frame bonded-core bullets.

THE RIGHT COMBINATION FORTHE JOB 177

The .458 Winchester Magnum and the huge .500 Nitro Express, two cartridges designed for stopping power!

There are several cartridges that
step up the velocity in the .375-inch
diameter, such as the .375 Weatherby,
.378 Weatherby, and .375 Remington
Ultra Magnum. As with any case that
increases the velocity, a premium
bullet will always perform better,
due to the higher velocities that ac¬
company impact. The real beauty of
the .375s is their flexibility, espe¬
cially when you handload for them.
They have manageable recoil, while
producing over 4,000 ft-lbs of muzzle
energy. They can be flat-shooting
with 250- and 270-grain bullets for
plains game and, yet, with a proper
300-grainer, can effectively be used
on buffalo and elephant.

The next step up from the .375
bores are the .40-calibers. The .404
Jeffery (.423-inch), the .450/400
(.411-inch) and the .416 Rigby and

.416 Remington Magnum (.416-inch)
are all reputable dangerous-game
guns. They offer a heavier bullet of
larger diameter and are more effective
on the big guys, yet you might say you
start to lose the flexibility of the .375s.
It is in this class of cartridge that you
really start to see the financial benefits
of loading your own, as factory ammu¬
nition can get very expensive.

I like the .416s, as they have a
good selection of bullets. I believe
they are just about ideal for buffalo.
My own sweetheart is a Winchester
Model 70 in .416 Remington, affec¬
tionately named “Cocoa,” for its dark
stained stock. I’ve spent a lot of time
at the bench with this rifle; with the
1.5-5x20mm scope, I can consistently
print one-inch three-shot groups with
it, pushing the 400-grain bullets to an
even 2,400 fps on the chronograph.

178 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

This equates to 5,000 ft-lbs of energy
at the muzzle, a recipe for success,
when pitted against any large thing
with four feet and a heartbeat. I’ve
used this combination on buffalo
with great success and anticipate an
elephant hunt using 400-grain Barnes
Banded Solids. The venerable .416
Rigby produces the same ballistics,
but at the cost of burning over 100
grains of powder in that big case. It is
an undeniable classic, but I will say it
has more recoil than the comparable
Remington design.

The .45-caliber safari rifles are even
more specialized, and they are usu¬
ally reserved for the biggest species.
They can launch a 500-grain bullet at
velocities of 2,100 to 2,600 fps. The
.458 Winchester Magnum is among the
most popular in this caliber range, ca¬
pable of being loaded in a long-action
(.30-06 length), and of pushing the
500-grain bullets to 2,100 fps.

There is one drawback to the .458
Winchester, its case capacity. The
case is based on the .375 H&H, cut
down and blown out to be nearly
straight-walled. With this design, the
handloader is almost always forced
to use compressed loads of powder
to achieve acceptable velocities; a
compressed load is one in which there
is no room for the powder to move
in the case, as the bullet physically
compresses it during the bullet seating
process. Many stick powders take up
too much room in the case to get the
500-grainers to that 2,100 fps mark.
One powder that worked out very well
for me was Hodgdon’s H335. It is a
ball powder that gave uniform veloci¬
ties and good accuracy.

Jack Lott enhanced the .458
Winchester design by elongating the
case to the full H&H length of 2.850
inches, making the job of handloading
much easier. The .458 Lott has some
cool features. For one, it’s much easier
to load for, having a larger case capac¬
ity than the .458 Winchester. Because
of this, you can obtain higher veloci¬
ties than with the .458 Winchester.
Finally, in a pinch, you can shoot
.458 Winchester ammunition in the
Lott chamber without issue. Hornady
makes good .458 Lott cases.

As you might imagine, when you
start pushing those huge 500-grain
bullets, the recoil ramps up tremen¬
dously. My advice is this: sight in
your rifle and develop your load on
the shooting bench and then get off
it! These big guys are much more
comfortable to shoot offhand or off
shooting sticks than they are to shoot
from the bench. Also, buy the best
quality scope you can afford, because
a .458 will chew up cheap optics faster
than you can buy them!

What al this boils down to, if you’re
looking for a battery of rifles to cover
the entire world and load for them,
pick a sensible, medium caliber be¬
tween .270 and .308 diameter and cou¬
ple it with a big-bore of .375 through
.458. With the selection of bullets
and powders available today, you then
have a common-sense, complemen¬
tary pair of rifles suitable for hunting
anywhere in the world. These days,
my own one-two punch consists of a
.300 Winchester Magnum and my .416
Remington Magnum. I sometimes use
different rifles when hunting around
my home, but, when traveling to hunt

THE RIGHT COMBINATION F0RTHE JOB 179

abroad, I grab this combination more
often than not.

LOADING FOR LONG-RANGE

There’s a trend in hunting and
shooting these days, one I’ve been see¬
ing for a number of years. This trend
highlights and encourages shooting at
very, very long ranges.

Competitive shooting is a won¬
derful sport, and the greatest risk to
participating in it is that your feelings
are hurt when you don’t shoot as well
as you wanted to. In the hunting world,
though, it is a much different game.
Long-range shots at unwounded game
can be, simply put, unethical. I’ve seen
television shows and magazine articles
that claim one-shot kills at 700-plus
yards. I’m not saying this can’t be
done, but I have a hard time with the
casual attitude. One does not simply

buy a super-magnum 20x scope, take
a glance at a drop chart, and proclaim
themselves a shooter capable of killing
at these distances. Your chosen setup
must deliver enough energy upon
impact to ensure a humane kill. It’s
not nearly as easy as some make it out
to be.

The hunting debate aside, let’s
discuss some loading techniques for
hitting distant targets.

First, you must have an understand¬
ing of the cartridge you’re shooting.
What is the cartridge’s safe velocity
potential? Higher velocity results in
a flatter trajectory, and that lessens
the holdover (the amount of elevation
above the target needed to allow for
the gravitational effect on the bullet).
Which bullet should you choose to re¬
sist wind drift and retain energy? How
do you get precise accuracy?

Best-quality rifles and optics are required for true long-range shooting. The Leupold scope shown
on this .338 Lapua is one of the best available and will hold up to the terrific recoil of the round
without losing its zero.

180 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Large-diameter “bull” barrels are often employed on long-range target rifles.

I’m going to start with the last
question first. Accuracy is measured
in “minutes of angle.” There are 60
minutes in one degree, so a minute of
angle is an arc of V 6 o-degree. When a
rifle is said to be capable of shooting
minute-of-angle groups, it is under¬
stood that the extreme spread (center
to center) of a three- or five-shot group
will be no more than the sine of one
minute of angle at the distance to the
target. At 100 yards, the equation
works like this:

The measure of one minute is
expressed as a decimal portion of a
degree (divide 1 by 60) and the sine
of that number is taken. You then
multiply that number by 300 feet (100
yards) and then again by 12 to convert
feet to inches. If my abacus is correct,
one minute of angle (MOA) at 100
yards is equal to an extreme group
spread of 1.047 inches.

Now, this minute of angle is a pro¬
jecting cone, one that gets wider as the
distance gets further. Thus, MOA at
200 yards is 2.094 inches, at 300 yards
it’s 3.142 inches, and so on. Most rifles
considered good for long-range use
will shoot three-shot groups under 1
MOA and, preferably, !4-MOA.

What we want to do, when we
know we’ll be shooting at distance, is
create ammunition that will keep that
group spread to a minimum, obviously
so that we can more efficiently and
reliably place the bullet on the target.
To do this, every step in the loading of
your ammunition must be done much
more precisely than the ammunition
you would produce for shorter ranges,
as any error or deviation will be mag¬
nified at those greater distances. Let’s
get down to the nitty-gritty.

Cases should be trimmed to a
uniform length and checked with a

THE RIGHT COMBINATION F0RTHE JOB 181

micrometer. I like to use the cases
of the same headstamp and often the
same lot, so that the case capacity
is as uniform as possible; different
brands of cases can be made to differ¬
ent thicknesses, so the volume of the
case (inside dimension) can vary. By
using the same brand or lot of cases,
you can remove as much of that varia¬
tion as possible.

When installing primers, some
precision shooters prefer a handheld
priming tool, so that they can feel the
primers being seated to a uniform
depth. For certain, every individual
powder charge must be weighed and
tolerances held strictly. When seeking
this level of accuracy, I also weigh
the bullets I have chosen and separate
them into groups, using only bullets
that have the same weight within a
limit of 0.1- or 0.2-grain.

Bullet seating depth uniformity is
critical. Once the load data has been
established at the shooting bench, all
future ammunition should be loaded
to these specifications, to reproduce
the accuracy. Seating depth variations
can change the accuracy, so I use a
micrometer to verify that my seating
die hasn’t come out of adjustment and
seated my bullets either too deep or
out too far. There are several compa¬
nies that make “precision” or “com¬
petition” dies, on which the seating
plug has a dial-adjustable mechanism
to allow for better control of seating
depth. For ultra-precise ammunition,

I feel these are a worthwhile invest¬
ment. Redding Competition Seating
Dies are one of my favorites.

Now that you’ve adhered to the
stringent loading of your ammunition,

you must examine the rifle to eliminate
other factors that may hinder you from
hitting your target. While this is not a
book on rifles, it must be stated that the
best ammunition cannot function well
through a rifle that is not well tuned.

Examine the rifle’s trigger and
make sure it has a clean, crisp pull,
not too heavy, not too light, with little
creep or over-travel. A gunsmith can
tune or replace your trigger if need
be. Make sure the action is properly
bedded and that the barrel isn’t hitting
the stock in a way that will affect ac¬
curacy. Be certain the scope bases and
rings are installed correctly and tight¬
ly enough so as not to come loose,
and that the rifle scope is mounted so
that the vertical crosshair is perfectly
aligned with the centerline of the
bore—in no way should the reticle be
canted. If perfectly aligned, the bullets
will drop on a plumb line, when hold¬
ing over the bull’s-eye. If not, at long
distances, your shots will drop either
to the left or to the right, depending
on how the reticle is canted.

Choosing the proper bullet for
long-range shooting is mandatory.
You’ll want something with a high
ballistic coefficient, so as to retain as
much velocity and energy downrange
as possible. A boat-tail bullet often
gets the nod. Round-nosed and semi-
spitzer bullets have too much drag,
and their velocities (and therefore
energies) drop off much faster than
the boat-tail spitzer design. Most
long-range shooters tend to choose
a heavier bullet weight, even though
they cannot be loaded to be fired as
fast as a lighter bullet of the same
caliber. The heavy bullet invariably

182 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

bucks the wind better, and wind drift
at long ranges can pose quite a prob¬
lem, especially when the wind varies
along the bullet’s path (which it will).

Doping the wind is almost an art
form. If I’m in a situation where the
possibility of a true long-range shot
exists, I usually choose a bullet that
will best resist wind drift and increase
my chances of shooting where I’m
aiming. Many of the polymer-tipped
boat-tail bullets I’ve previously
described will fit this bill, as will the
lineup of hollowpoint boat-tail bul¬
lets suitable for hunting. If you need
something for very long-range hunt¬
ing (and by this I mean more than 400
yards), take a long look at the energy
the bullet will have at the longer rang¬
es. A good loading manual will give
this information. There are oodles of
sources for accepted minimum energy

for adequate killing power on differ¬
ent size game animals. I personally
like to adhere to this general idea, as
best as possible.

LOAD DEVELOPMENT

As you ponder the possibilities of
building the perfect load for your rifle
and shooting situation, you must be
sure that the chosen combination will
provide the accuracy and velocity you
desire. This process is known as “load
development,” and it’s really what this
chapter has been leading up to. I’ll use
the popular .30-06 Springfield as a
hypothetical example.

Let’s suppose my goal is to develop
a good load for deer-sized game. I don’t
need a super-tough bullet, yet you want
good expansion and penetration. After
settling on the Sierra 150-grain spitzer,

Reloading manuals provide a great wealth of information about the possible bullet and powder
combinations for each cartridge. Shown here is the Sierra Edition V manual.

THE RIGHT COMBINATION FORTHE JOB 183

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

a standard cup-and-core bullet with a
good reputation for deer-sized game, I
resize and trim up a bunch of once-fired
Federal ’06 brass.

Sierra’s Rifle & Handgun Reload¬
ing Manual, Edition V indicates that
the data was developed using a Federal
210 Large Rifle primer, so I pick up a
couple hundred of those primers to start
with. Now I must choose a powder. The
Sierra Manual offers more than 20 to
choose from. Also offered in this manu¬
al are recommendations for an “Accu¬
racy Load” and a “Hunting Load.”

The first uses a load of 59.6 grains
of Hodgdon’s H4831 SC, giving 2,800
fps, and the latter uses 53.4 grains of
Ramshot BigGame powder for 2,900
fps. If you like either of these, so be
it, but both the loads are on the high
side of the listed charge weights for
these powders, so you must start with
a lighter weight to be sure there are no
pressure issues with your particular
rifle. Because of that, I’m going to
choose a more universal powder for my
hypothetical loading: IMR4064. It’s a
middle-of-the-road powder, useful in
a wide variety of other cartridges, and
(usually) readily available. With this
powder, the manual gives us a charge
range of a minimum of 44.9 grains
(2,600 fps) to a maximum of 52.1
grains (3,000 fps). (Remember that,
just as you should never load past the
maximum recommended charge, you
should also never load below the listed
minimum. Under-loading a case is actu¬
ally quite possibly more dangerous than
overloading one!)

The bullets will be seated to Sierra
Manual’s test COL of 3.225 inches.
Since I’m looking for distance work and

because there’s such a wide range of
charge weights I can use, I’d recom¬
mend a starting load of an even 45.0
grains and load six rounds for two
three-shot groups. I’d then place them in
a plastic bag and label the bag with the
load data. From there, I load in batches
of either three or six rounds, increasing
the powder charge for each batch by
one grain, until I’ve reach a load of 52.0
grains (just under the maximum). Each
load batch will be placed in its plastic
bag and clearly labeled with its load.

Now it’s time to hop in the ol’ fam¬
ily truckster and head to the shooting
range. Rifle, ammunition, targets,
hearing and eye protection, cleaning rod
and patches, sandbags or some other
rifle rest, and a notebook are gathered
together for this venture. I like the rifle
to be thoroughly clean at this time, but I
toss some fouling ammunition—rounds
that won’t be included in the accuracy
test, but will warm the barrel a bit and
deposit some minimal residue—in the
bag, too. Fouling rounds can be some
leftover factory rounds or other odds
and ends. Doesn’t matter, just keep
them separate from your for-group
rounds. At the shooting bench, I shoot
one fouling round to blow any oil out of
the bore and foul the bore. Now I can
start to assess the accuracy potential of
the loads we’ve made.

I fire a three-shot group of the low¬
est powder charge load and assess the
group size. It doesn’t matter where on
the target the load hits, as I’ll ultimately
adjust the scope for my pet loads, but
you would like to see a group.

I’ll repeat this for each batch, allow¬
ing the barrel to cool between groups,
so that barrel heat doesn’t open up my

184 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

groups wider than they should be, and
recording the group results against the
load data. I make certain that the rifle is
well rested into sandbags or whatever
other rifle rest I’ve a mind to use. Also I
make sure the fore-end of the stock isn’t
clamped down into anything, so that the
barrel can move freely during the shot.
This is where my (and yours!) shooting
technique requires the utmost atten¬
tion—take your time! Finally, every 10 to
15 shots, run a dry patch down the bore
to avoid a dirty bore, but I don’t want it
squeaky clean.

When I’m running load develop¬
ment tests like this, I keep a series of
notes in my notebook, recording the
group size of each different load, and I
watch for pressure signs such as sticky
extraction or cratered primers
along the way. If I find pressure
signs, I will not shoot any of
the loads with a heavier charge
weight, because I have found
my rifle’s maximum pressure
for that bullet/case/powder
combination. What I’m after,
with this rather rigorous testing,
is accuracy. The charge weight
that gives the tightest group is
the one I look at, much more
than I do the velocity it gives.

My personal theory is this: It is
more important that the bullet
be delivered where it needs to
be, than whether I’ve squeezed
the last 100 fps out of the case.

If the smallest of the groups still
don’t meet my accuracy require¬
ments or expectations, I will load
more rounds, varying the powder
charge by 0.2-grain above and
below the tightest group weight

(and so long as I don’t exceed the
manual’s listed maximum load or go
above the charge weight that gave me
high pressure signs). Repeat the three-
shot test data and, with any luck, I’ll
have found the accuracy I like. If not,
it’s time to repeat the test process with a
new powder and/or primer brand.

When I finally settle on the load that
gives me the accuracy I’m after, I then
break out the chronograph and shoot 10
shots of that particular load, to establish
a good average velocity. I try to observe
the velocity as close to the temperature
at which I’ll be hunting or shooting, to
minimize the effects that temperature
has on powder. If the velocity is not
where I want it, I may have to try a
different powder that will give higher

► When loading for a particular
cartridge, it truly pays to do as much
research on that case as you can.

Some cases have a powder that suits
it very well. For example, the .22-250
Remington and Hodgdon H380, the
.308 Winchester and IMR4064, and
the .270 Winchester and H4831 are
known, proven entities. That is not to
say that other powders won’t work well,
but these combinations have stood the
test of time and, more often than not,
provide a good starting point. The re¬
loading manuals in print toady tell a tale
born from thousands of hours of testing
and should be respected for that.

CASE STUDY

THE RIGHT COMBINATION F0RTHE JOB 185

velocities at acceptable pressures, while
still delivering the accuracy I need. I
carefully record the case brand/powder
type/charge weight/primer/bullet combi¬
nation for that rifle in my loading notes
and can then reproduce the accuracy
I’ve worked so hard to obtain.

Once the group size and velocity
have been established and are accept¬
able, I look up the trajectory of the
specific bullet in question at the velocity
given by the chronograph. I usually
make a drop chart on the back of a
business card, telling me how much
holdover is required for shots beyond
the distance that rifle is zeroed. Let’s say
this particular Sierra 150-grain bullet
I loaded is moving at 2,850 fps at the
muzzle, according to the chronograph.
The Ballistic Coefficient of this bullet is
right around 0.340 and, when I consult
a trajectory chart, I’ll find that the rifle
is likely best zeroed for 200 yards; this
means the arc of the bullet will rise and
then lower to strike the bull’s-eye of the
target at 200 yards. The same chart will
indicate that, with such a zero, I must
sight the scope to have the bullet strike
the target 1.9 inches high at 100 yards,
hold eight inches above my point of
aim to hit a target at 300 yards, and 24
inches high at 400 yards. This trajectory
curve also tells me that, if I align the
scope as described, a shot at 100 yards
will strike no more than two inches
high, yet a 225-yard shot will only be
two inches low. Most hunting shots are
taken at ranges under 225 yards, and
a laser rangefinder will aid in making
those long-range shots.

The same process must be repeated
for each type and weight of bullet you
choose to use. It is not uncommon to

have four or five different loads for a
particular rifle, especially a rifle that is
asked to perform many different tasks.
That .30-’06 we’ve been talking about
may be loaded with 125-grain bullets
for coyotes and other varmints, or load¬
ed with 220-grain bullets for bears and
other large beasts A simple adjustment
of the rifle scope is all that’s needed for
each load, once properly developed.

This is only one example of load
development. There are many bullet
weights to choose from and experi¬
ment with for the .30-06, just as there
are for the myriad other cartridges we
have today. This kind of load devel¬
opment, then, is a good part of why
you’ve chosen to handload in the first
place. Another reason is that each rifle
or pistol will have minute differences
in their construction and slight varia¬
tions in the barrels. Some are “tight” or
smaller than specified bore diameter.
Others are “loose,” larger than specified
bore diameter. The tight barrels often
produce higher velocities, but reach
maximum pressures sooner than the
loose ones. When handloading, it is im¬
portant to build each load specific to the
firearm you intend to shoot it through,
to avoid damaging the gun or, worse,
hurting yourself or others. Common
sense should always prevail and safety
should always come first. Observing the
rules will keep your guns happily fed
for a lifetime.

The load development process must
be repeated for each type and weight
of bullet you choose to use. It is not
uncommon to have four or five differ¬
ent loads for a particular rifle, espe¬
cially a rifle that is asked to perform
many different tasks.

186 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

These are 10mm Auto cartridges, with 155-grain Speer Gold Dot bullets. These fed very well
through a Dan Wesson 1911-type pistol.

Load development for your pistol
or revolver, unless you’re a com¬
petitive shooter of the NRA-regulated
bull’s-eye crowd, generally doesn’t
revolve around hair-splitting accuracy
as much as it does creating rounds for
consistent, reliable functioning. Just
as it is with rifle load development,
you must look at the job you intend
your handgun handloads to perform. If
you want a .38 Special wadcutter for
punching paper, the approach will be
different than it is if you’re cooking
up some heavy loads for deer hunting.
Another example would be loads for
the many pistol shooters who partici¬
pate in time-based competitions. These
folks want a lighter load that will
allow them to get on target quickly
after the gun recoils, and they also
need reliable feeding. Jams cost pre¬
cious seconds. The balance for such
a shooter is one between accuracy
(enough of it) and reliability.

Once you choose the bullet for
your pistol, your load development
proceeds much the same way it was
outlined in the .30-06 example above,
except that I would load two-dozen
rounds or so for each powder charge
batch. Once I had assured myself
that the pressures were safe and the
accuracy acceptable, I would then
shoot two or three magazines of the
favored load, to ensure I have reliable
feeding. Most pistol shooters know
that many semi-autos seem to have
an objection to certain bullet pro¬
files. My pal Bill Loeb, for instance,
has a Dan Wesson 10mm semi-auto
that loves the 155-grain Speer Gold
Dot loads I made for him, yet has
an aversion to feeding the 180-grain
lead truncated cone profile. More
than likely, the feed ramp just doesn’t
agree with the bullet design, but you
won’t know this until you work up
your loads and do the work.

THE RIGHT COMBINATION FORTHE JOB 187

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

The custom
engraved Leupold
VX6 2-12x40
rifle scope on
the author’s
.300 Winchester
Magnum.

(Photo courtesy Massaro
Media Group & J.D. Fielding
Photography)

LOADING VERSATILITY EXEMPLIFIED

Among big-game hunters, the 7mm and .308-
inch bore diameters are universally recognized
as being among the most versatile rifle calibers
available, with both offering a wide range of bullet
weights. The 7mm bore has common weights from
100-grain to 175-grain, while the .308 bore uses
110-grain through 220-grain bullets. I have loaded
for many different 7mms, and, while I respect them
very much, I have actually spent most of my hunt¬
ing days behind the trigger of a .30-caliber rifle.
With the exception of the bullets heavier than 180
grains, the two calibers are very similar in the fact
that they have a selection of bullets suitable for
hunting game animals from varmint size through
large bears.

One of my favorite rifles is a Winchester Model
70 Classic Stainless chambered in .300 Winchester

188 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Magnum and nicknamed the “Silverback.” It has a stainless
steel barreled action and a composite stock, making it just about
impervious to adverse weather conditions. I bought it used, in
2004, and it just so happened to fit me like a glove.

One of the beautiful features of the .300 Winchester is that it
can be loaded to its maximum potential to be a serious long-
range rifle, yet can also be loaded down to the same ballistics
as the .308 Winchester or .30-06 Springfield for hunting in the
northeast woods where the average shot is under 125 yards. I
have done exactly that with this rifle. Because of the variety of
hunting situations where I carry my .300, I require a versatile
rifle scope, one capable of handling very close shooting in the
dark conifer woods of the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains
in my native New York, yet also suitable for long-range shoot¬
ing on the wide-open terrain outside of Quebec, on the windy
plains of Wyoming, or for plains game in a place like the Kafue
Flats, in Zambia. I settled on a Leupold VX6 2-12x42mm with a
30mm main tube. A true 2x on the bottom allows me to shoot at
distances as close as 10 yards with no problem picking up the
target, yet the top end of 12x is enough magnification for the
furthest distances in which I feel confident shooting.

The game animal I hunt most often is whitetail deer. Now, I
certainly know you do not need a .300 Winchester to kill a deer,
but no one would scoff if you used a .308 Winchester or .30-06
for a deer rifle. Here, in New York, with the exception of some
power lines and farm fields, our shots at deer tend to be rela¬
tively close, so, again, I require neither a very heavy bullet nor a
ton of speed. For this kind of hunting, I chose a 150-grain Sierra
flat-based spitzer that gets seated over 68 grains of Reloder 19.
This gave me a velocity of 2,850 fps, which is right on par with
the .30-06, and even a .270 Winchester pushing a 150-grain
bullet. This handload works perfect for deer, even though it is on
the light end of the round’s loading data.

I’ve taken my .300 with me on several long-range hunts. The
pronghorn antelope is known for its uncanny eyesight and the
wide-open treeless prairie it inhabits. Getting close to them is no
easy task, and the plains of the American West are notorious for
their windy conditions. I wanted a bullet fast enough to produce
a relatively flat trajectory, yet heavy enough to buck the wind. I
worked up a load using what I feel is the ideal bullet weight for a
.300 Magnum, the 180-grain. I tried several and got good results
with a Sierra boat-tail and a Hornady flat-base, but the Swift

THE RIGHT COMBINATION F0RTHE JOB 189

The.300
Winchester
Magnum, with the
180-grain Swift
Scirocco II seated
over IMR4350.

(Photo courtesy Massaro
Media Group &
J.D. Fielding Photography)

Scirocco II gave the best results of all in this par¬
ticular rifle. I actually had two loads that worked out
perfect for this bullet, one using Reloder 19 again,
and then the one I settled on that used 68.5 grains
of IMR4350 in a Remington-Peters case backed
by a Federal 215 Large Rifle Magnum primer. This
load will print three-shot groups of 0.3-inch, if I
do my part on the bench. That work both in load¬
ing and bench time ended up being very effective
in Wyoming, on a recent pronghorn. I stalked him
to within 215 yards, in very windy conditions, and
dropped him in his tracks. Could I have made this
shot with factory ammo? Sure. But that’s not really
the point. What makes the difference is that I’ve
worked through the bigger variety of possibilities
and load combinations that only reloading can pro¬
vide, and I /cnoi/i/what my best loads will do. That’s a
kind of confidence that doesn’t come so easily with
factory fodder.

My first African Safari was in 2004, to the Re¬
public of South Africa. As is my usual habit when

190 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

I travel, I brought two rifles with me. I had become infatuated
with the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum, but I brought a .300
Winchester along in the event of longer shots. Now, one thing
about Africa is that you never know what you may see while
afield. In pursuit of an impala, you may stumble across the
eland of your lifetime, or, while tracking zebra, you may see
a wonderful tiny duiker. Point is, you’ll need a rifle capable of
swiftly taking the biggest animal you intend to hunt. To meet
this range of shooting possibilities, I loaded the .300 Win¬
chester with a bullet I feel is well suited to the broad spectrum
of African plains game, the 200-grain Swift A-Frame. My rifle is
happy with this bullet over 75.0 grains of Reloder 25, in a W-W
Super case lit up by the Federal 215M Match Large Rifle Mag¬
num primer. Group sizes average just over one-inch. The chro¬
nograph tells a tale of a muzzle velocity at 2,750 fps, so I made
a drop chart, zeroed the rifle scope accordingly, and packed
my bags. That first safari was wonderful and the .300 did its
share of the work, claiming my very first head of African game,
a splendid gemsbok bull with 33-inch-long, well-broomed
horns. The heavy, stout bullet in the .300 Winchester used on
that gemsbok would suffice for any of Africa’s antelope, and
it’s been used by others many times over on game as tough as
grizzly bear and lion.

Even with that safari, I wasn’t done putting the .300 Win¬
chester through the ringer. I had been studying way too many
books on old rifle calibers and the wheels were grinding. I’d
read the praises of the .318 Westley Richards, a round using a
250-grain .330-inch diameter bullet at a muzzle velocity of 2,400
fps, and how, at that weight and velocity, the penetration and
knockdown power had earned the favor of early twentieth-centu¬
ry hunters. Well, finances being what they were, I couldn’t afford
to buy a .318 WR, but I did have some long, 220-grain, .308-inch
round-nosed bullets and a .300 Winchester! If I couldn’t buy a
.318, maybe I could build the next best thing!

I grabbed my Hornady Interlock 220-grain round-nosed bullets
and thumbed through some old reloading manuals looking for a
load that would give me 2,400 fps. It wasn’t long at all before I saw
that 53.0 grains of IMR4064 would yield exactly that, and I proceed¬
ed to fill some Remington-Peters nickel-plated cases with that very
load. I had some Remington 91/2 primers on hand, and that combi¬
nation worked out very well. Group size hangs around an inch, and
the bullet performs very well. I have cleanly taken a black bear and

THE RIGHT COMBINATION F0RTHE JOB 191

IMR

4064

SMOKELESS

POWDER

NE T WT. 1 LB

itttrw*

30 CAL

in tepl° ck

The.300
Winchester with
220-grain Hornady
round-nosed
bullets. It’s the
author’s favorite
load for hunting
deer and bear in
New York.

(Photo courtesy
Massaro Media Group &
J.D. Fielding Photography)

several deer with it, including an 11-point whitetail that
weighed 175 pounds after field dressing. I call this
load “l-can’t-believe-it’s-not-a-Westley.”

By now, it should be plain just how versatile one
rifle can be, thanks to handloading. Of course, no
one would ever call the .300 Winchester Magnum a
small round, so, it’s not for everyone. For the shooter
who pursues lighter game or wants a target rifle
that will be more wind resistant than the .22-caliber
centerfires, the .243 Winchester is another example
of a versatile caliber for which you should handload.
The 6mm bore diameter offers a wider range of bullet
weights than the .22-calibers, and it is well suited to
performing as both a varmint-class rifle and a good
deer/antelope gun. The case is efficient, one based
on the .308 Winchester necked down to hold 6mm
bullets, and it has the inherent accuracy potential of
the .308. It makes an awful lot of sense for the hunter
who wants only one rifle for varmint to deer-size
range of animals.

192 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

On the lighter end of the scale, for woodchucks, prairie
dogs, and coyotes, there are a good many varmint bullets avail¬
able for the .243. Hornady’s 58-grain V-Max, Nosler’s 55-grain
Ballistic Tip, Berger’s 69-grain Match Flat Base, and Speer’s
70-grain TNT hollowpoint come to mind. These bullets are very
frangible, meaning that will expand easily, a design perfect for
varmint hunting.

I like two very different powders for the .243 with these bul¬
lets, IMR3031 and IMR4350. A suitable load of IMR3031 with
the Hornady 58-grain V-Max and a good Large Rifle primer like
a CCI200 will yield muzzle velocities in the neighborhood of
3,800 fps. This is performance very close to the .22-250 Rem¬
ington or .220 Swift, both of which are classic varmint calibers
really best suited/limited to that hunting classification. Try and
develop your loads so they will give at least MOA accuracy (and,
preferably, smaller), and you should be able to consistently hit
coyotes and woodchucks out to almost 400 yards with some
practice. In fact, I’ve used a .243 Winchester with lighter bullets
to produce some very impressive groups (some 14-MOA). Hunt¬
ing varmints out to 300-plus yards (and providing I do my part
behind the trigger), the results are always impressive. Several
coyotes have gone down “bang-flop.”

Many hunters reach for the .243 Winchester when it comes
to hunting deer and antelope. I’ve stated that the 6mm car¬
tridges are on the lower end of the spectrum for this job, as far
as I am concerned. However, in the hands of a cool shot, I know
for certain that the .243 can be very effective. I recommend
using only the 85-, 90-, and 100-grain bullets, and I’d have no
problem with a hunter reaching for one of the premium projec¬
tiles in this caliber. The Hornady 85-grain Interbond, a 90-grain
Swift Scirocco II Nosier AccuBond, or maybe a 100-grain Speer
Grand Slam or Nosier Partition should be looked at as viable
candidates for deer hunting.

My family friend Col. Le Frogg has a Ruger Model 77 in the
matte grey and laminate stock Target/Varmint configuration that
loves a 100-grain Nosier Partition over 40.0 grains of Reloder
19, with a CCI200 primer in a Remington case. The Nosier
leaves the muzzle at 2,850 fps. This is a very accurate load
(and one that makes me believe that Reloder 19 is among the
best powders for the .243 Winchester with the heavier bullets).
Like most other calibers, if you’re looking for retained energy

THE RIGHT COMBINATION F0RTHE JOB 193

The .243
Winchester and
hollowpoint bullets
make a very
potent varmint
combination.

(Photos both pages courtesy
Massaro Media Group & J.D.
Fielding Photography)

at long distances, look to the long, sleek, boat-tail
bullets. They will need less holdover when you get
out past 250 yards, and they drift less in the wind.

Just in case you’re not convinced that reloading
can give you the kind of flexibility you would mostly
likely struggle to get with factory fodder, and just
in case you think this belief is only applicable to
“common” cartridges, let’s look at the .375 Holland
& Holland. This African classic was developed by
the prestigious firm of Holland & Holland, in 1912,
and was originally loaded with Cordite. It had the
privilege of being the first successful belted cases
(one that headspaces off the front of the belt,
rather than the rim or the shoulder), blending the
best features of both rimmed and rimless cases. It
gained a respectable reputation immediately.

The big belted case was originally offered with
three bullet weights, a 235-grain, a 270-grain,
and a 300-grain, but today’s bullets are better. I
got my first .375 just after the turn of the twenty-
first century, a push-feed Winchester Model
70, with the idea of an African safari in mind. I
gathered some Federal 215 Large Rifle Magnum

194 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

primers, Winchester cases, and the Grumpy Pants-approved
IMR4064 powder.

Initial load development didn’t go so well with this rifle, but it
turns out the rifle had a severe bedding problem. Once I had Hill
Country Rifles iron that little wrinkle out, I sat at the bench with
my handloads and got good groups with the Speer 235-grain
HotCor and Sierra 250-grain boat-tail bullets. Both are good
choices for lighter game in both Africa and North America, and
I’ve loaded them for many friends who hunt on both continents.
The Sierra 250-grain load I developed worked very well on
African plains game. It sat on top of 68.5 grains of IMR4064 that
propelled it to 2,750 fps and shot right at MOA accuracy. Dad
took a great kudu and gemsbok with my rifle and this load on
his first safari. The 235-grain Speer shot very well, also, but is
a bit too soft on deer-sized game. The whitetail deer Dad and I
have taken with it had a large amount of blood-shot meat and a
huge wound channel. I now reserve these bullets for paper. I’ve
recently loaded some of the Barnes TSX 235-grain all-copper
bullets for some clients, with great results. Accuracy is as good
as you can expect, being under MOA, and the mono-metal bullet
will not come apart. Using Reloder 15, a powder the .375 H&H
likes very much, and a 235-grain Barnes TSX, you have a pretty
flat-shooting, yet low-recoil combination that’s well suited for
plains game in Africa, or elk, moose, and bear in North America.

Head up the weight scale to the heavier bullets, and you have
in your hands a raging beast capable of taking all game on earth.
The 270-grain Barnes TSX and
Swift A-Frames are great bullets
that give good results at lower
recoil levels on the largest of
mammals, but go on to load
the .375 H&H with a premium
300-grain bullet and it will really
shine. Many African Profession-

IMR4350 gave
excellent results in
the .375 H&H case,
printing three-shot
groups of less than
one MOA.

THE RIGHT COMBINATION FORTHE JOB 195

The .375 H&H
Magnum, with
300-grain Swift
A-Frame bullets.

(Photo courtesy
Massaro Media Group &
J.D. Fielding Photography)

al Hunters swear that no other cartridge will pene¬
trate as deep as a 300-grain .375-inch bullet. My pet
load uses 77.0 grains of IMR4350 under a 300-grain
Swift A-Frame, set off by a Federal 215M primer in
a Remington case to give me a muzzle velocity of
2,510 fps. This particular load worked wonders for
me in South Africa, as well as on a bison hunt in
South Dakota.

One of the wonderful properties of the .375 H&H
is the ability to put many bullets of different make
into the same point of impact. That’s important
when hunting dangerous game, where a mixture
of solids and premium soft-points will be used. My
.375 would put 300-grain Swift A-Frames, 300-grain
Hornady round-nosed, and 300-grain Hornady
Solids all into the same bull’s-eye. I once shot a
three-shot group, using one each of the three bul¬
lets above, into a group that measured 1.1 inches.

196 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

CHAPTER 8

V

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

I n this chapter, I’m going to delve
into some of the problems and
pitfalls that come with loading
your own ammunition, from the dis¬
appointing to the dangerous. Hope¬
fully, this will allow you to learn

from the mistakes of others without

having to make them yourself.

If you’re like me, you’ve done
your best to adhere to all the rules and
guidelines that have been outlined so
far. You’ve read the reloading manu-

WHYDIDN'TTHIS WORK OUT? 197

als, learned the history and design
of your particular cartridge, tumbled
the cases until they are shiny, resized
them properly, picked out the bullet,
primer, and powder that tickle your
fancy, and assembled it all to the best
of your ability. As you head to the
range, you’re as giddy as a five-year-
old on Christmas Eve. Then, after set¬
tling into the bench, stuffing the shiny
little fellas into your sweetheart pistol
or rifle, and holding and squeezing,
the walk to the target shows disap¬
pointing results. The groups are much
larger than you’ve expected. This is
the most common problem, and here
are some of the causes.

POWDER CHOICE

As I’ve previously outlined, there
are many different types of smokeless
powder on the market today, for both
pistols and rifles. Some have been
around for more than 70 years, while
others are just a year or two old.

Rifles, to a greater degree than
pistols, are finicky creatures. I’ve
owned and loaded for some that
would happily and accurately digest
just about any powder I stuffed in the
case. Those kinds of guns are a joy.
Then, there have been some, like Dad’s
Ruger Model 77, chambered in .300
Winchester, that seemed to be unhappy
with everything I brewed up.

The fact of the matter is, every
barrel is different. Accuracy comes
from one thing, and that is consistent,
repeatable barrel harmonics. The
same thing applies to pistols.

There will usually be some sug¬
gested powders in the overview of

your cartridge choice in the major re¬
loading manuals. Listen to the people
who wrote these tomes, as they do
research for a living. That said, it may
take some experimentation to find
your recipe, that magic combination
of components that provide the level
of accuracy you’re happy with. Don’t
be afraid to try a different type or
brand of powder (if it’s listed in your
manual), and certainly don’t get mar¬
ried in the first place to a particular
powder. There are many websites,
social forums, and blogs that discuss
the best starting points for a par¬
ticular cartridge, and the reloading
manuals, old and new, provide a great
resource for choosing powders. A
change in powder has many a time
resulted in a rifle shooting sub-MOA
groups where before it was minute of
softball. By the bye, I found the magic
recipe for Dad’s .300, using Reloder 25
powder and 200-grain Swift A-Frames.
He is, finally, a happy moose hunter.

POWDER CHARGE

The reloading manual will give
you a range of powder weights for
your cartridge, from the start weight
(being the lowest) to the maximum.

It is always best and safest to start at
the lowest weight and slowly increase
the load while watching for pres¬
sure signs. Finding the sweet spot is
usually a matter of diligent trial and
error. Sometimes a small adjustment
in the powder charge can result in a
dramatic change in group size. My
.416 Remington printed 2/4-inch
groups with my initial loading. This
was acceptable, the rifle being in-

198 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

tended for the large vitals of the Cape
buffalo, but I’m not one to settle. An
adjustment of one grain of powder
brought the 100-yard group size
down to about 0.9-inch. Now, to me,
that’s pretty impressive for a rifle of
that caliber and a 5x scope. The same
scenario presented itself in my .308
Winchester and, this time, a 0.2-grain
adjustment made all the difference.

When I’m getting close to the
accuracy I want via the load develop¬
ment process described in the last
chapter, what I usually do is make
cartridges in groups of six (for two,
three-shot groups), with various pow¬
der charges in half-grain increments,
then fine-tune the load until I find
that which the rifle likes.

BULLET CHOICE

I enjoy using many different bullet
makes and models. Some of my rifles
prefer long, lean, boat-tailed spitzers,

while others prefer flat-based bul¬
lets, either round-nosed or spitzer. I
spent a lot of time and money (not to
mention stomach lining), chasing my
tail and wondering why my .22-250
would not print the 52-grain boat-tail
hollowpoint match-grade bullets into
the tight little groups I wanted. I tried
various powders, different cases, hu¬
man sacrifice (kidding), all with no
luck. My colleague and mentor, Col.
Le Frogg, overheard my complain¬
ing one day and solved the problem
immediately.

“Your barrel’s crown is a bit
imperfect,” he said to me. “Switch to
the 53-grain flat-base and call me in
the morning.”

He was spot on. Switching to the
flat-base gave me 3 / 8 -inch three-shot
groups, with the same powder charge
I’d been using with the 52-grain
bullets. Le Frogg had been right,
the crown was (and still is) ever so
slightly out of round, and the gas-

Sierra’s flat-base Match King
made all the difference in the
accuracy of the author’s . 22 -

WHY DIDN'T THIS WORK OUT? 199

ses were affecting the flight of those
boat-tail bullets because of that
crown imperfection. I could have had
it re-crowned, but it shoots those flat-
base bullets so well I haven’t both¬
ered. Lesson here: If you’re unhappy
with your rifle’s performance with
boat-tails, try a flat-base bullet. The
difference in long-range trajectory is
minimal at most sane hunting ranges,
but the accuracy usually improves
dramatically.

The same applies to the pistols.
Some barrels prefer the jacketed
hollowpoints we love so much, while
I’ve also seen some snub-nosed .38
Specials that will print wadcutters
into very tight groups. A finicky
1911 .45 ACP I had would only print
230-grain round-nosed ammuni¬
tion well; no matter how we loaded
185-grain jacketed bullets, it wasn’t
happy. Bottom line is, it may take
some time to find the particular bul¬
let for your rifle or pistol. Let go of
“loving” a particular powder or bullet
if it’s not working though your gun,
because why would anyone want to
keep barking up that tree and getting
crappy results? That just doesn’t
make sense. Experiment, switch
things up. When you get to the load
that sings, you’ll be a confident and
happy shooter.

MECHANICAL ISSUES

After hunting moose in Quebec,
glassing across those long, wide
lakes and finally seeing the sheer size
of those Kings of Deer, I promptly
headed to my local gun shop and
purchased a rifle I felt worthy of
Alces Alces, the .375 Holland & Hol-

200 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Quality bases, rings, and
optics help to evaluate
accuracy, taking mechanical
issues out of the equation.

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D.

Fielding Photography)

WHY DIDN'T THIS WORK OUT? 201

land Magnum. Proud as a peacock,

I bought a set of dies, a couple
hundred rounds of brass, and some
bullets I really liked the look of. But,
no matter what I did, regardless my
procedure, I had the same issue: I
would put the first shot on paper,
the second would hit three inches up
and to the right, and the third would
land within an inch of the first. Being
new to handloading at the time and
unwilling to settle for that degree of
accuracy, I made a phone call to a
custom rifle shop in New Braunfels,
Texas, that specializes in fixing these
sorts of problems. They told me that
my loading wasn’t the problem, rather
that the barreled action wasn’t bedded
properly into the stock (an inher¬
ent problem with my particular gun
model). The rifle was shipped to them
and re-bedded and, lo and behold, the
problem was solved. That big stick
now prints under one-inch groups
with 250-, 270-, or 300-grain bullets.

Another rifle I had, a military
Mauser conversion, wouldn’t group
below 2 MOA. Different bullets,
powders, and primers were used, all
with the same results. The culprit?

A military trigger. Creepier than an
old man in a van, the trigger broke at
about eight pounds. It was virtually
impossible to keep the rifle on target
while getting this trigger to break.
The solution? A premium replace¬
ment trigger. I ordered one from
Timney, took my time installing it,
and ended up reducing the groups to
minute of angle or better, depending
on the load.

Lesser quality optics and/or
bases and rings can also be a source

of frustration. Bases that loosen
from vibration and rings that don’t
properly hold the scope or are simply
improperly installed can drive you
crazy. Purchasing the best bases and
rings you can afford is worth every
penny you spend. If the hardware
won’t hold zero, the best handloaded
ammunition in the world won’t make
a bit of difference.

LOADING DIFFICULTY

At the bench, target all set up,
hopes higher than Heaven, you load
your firearm—except the bolt won’t
close, the pistol won’t chamber a
round, the autoloading rifle won’t go
into battery. Now what?

It’s time to reexamine the cases.
Did you properly resize them? A bolt-
action rifle has the strength to cam-
over on a slightly over-sized cartridge,
but pumps, levers, and auto-loaders
do not. Full-length resizing, described
in Chapter 4, is imperative, when
it comes to the pump-action, lever-
action, and auto-loading rifles (and
pistols). The partially sized case can
be the bane of the handloader. You
must make sure all your resizing dies
are properly adjusted, to ensure the
ammunition you’ve worked so hard to
make works properly in your firearm.
If loading problems do rear their ugly
heads, try switching over to small
base sizing dies, which will resize the
cases all the way to the base.

UNLOADING DIFFICULTY

Okay, it loads fine. You take two
deeps breaths, let the last one half-

202 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

The primer on the left shows acceptable pressure. It has the same appearance as a new one, with
the exception of the firing pin mark. The primer on the right has been flattened and the firing pin
mark appears “cratered, ” showing signs of excessive pressures.

The author’s dad, a.k.a. Grumpy Pants (right), explaining the effects of a canted reticle on long-
range shooting. He knows what he’s talking about!

way out, hold, and gently squeeze ...
bangl But, the action won’t cycle. The
bolt won’t open. You can’t extract the
cartridge. What does this mean?

You, my friend, have a pressure
problem. Pressure is funny thing. It’s
also a very, very dangerous thing. It
can result in a damaged firearm at
best, or loss of life at worst. It works
like this: Every cartridge is nothing

more than a pressure “chamber.” It
is made of brass, a malleable metal,
and is designed to hold a specific
charge of propellant in order to pro¬
pel the bullet or shot when ignited.

If you exceed that pressure limit for
which the cartridge was designed,
excessive pressure will show its ugly
face. In the revolver, it can result
in a cracked cylinder. In a rifle, it

WHY DIDN'T THIS WORK OUT? 203

(Photos courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

A steady, comfortable
rest that does not impinge
the rifle’s fore-end is a
must to properly evaluate
the accuracy of your
handloaded ammunition.

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group &
J.D. Fielding Photography)

204 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

becomes a stuck bolt or, perhaps, a
broken extractor. I don’t ever want
you to experience this, so allow me
to identify some symptoms.

If you are able to extract the
cartridge but with difficulty, examine
the struck primer. If the mark left by
the firing pin appears to have a raised
crater around the edges or the edges of
the primer don’t have the nice rounded
appearance they did when you seated
them, the pressure has become exces¬
sive. This means that ,for the particu¬
lar firearm you are holding , the load
is too hot and it has created excessive
and unacceptable pressures.

But, wait, Phil. I loaded these .270
Winchester cartridges in accordance
with the manual of the bullet manufac¬
turer. Everything should be fine, no?

In theory, yes, but, there are
variables you might not be aware of.
First, what is the barrel length of your
firearm in comparison to the barrel
length of the firearm used in the test
data? For every extra inch of barrel,
you gain around 25 fps of velocity and
the pressure increases accordingly.

An example: The test data shows
the loads for the .270 Winchester
were fired in a 22-inch barrel, but
you’ve got a 26-inch barrel. This
will result in an increase of roughly
100 fps, so the powder charges that
proved safe and acceptable in the test
rifle have shown excessive pressure
in your rifle. Reduce the charges and
work up, carefully, until you have a
load that is sufficiently accurate and
shows no pressure signs.

Another example: My .357
Magnum had its cases stuck in the
cylinder one day at the range. I used

WHY DIDN'T THIS WORK OUT? 205

an appropriate load for the bullet
weight, but was still getting pressure
problems. I have a six-inch barrel,
but the data was tested in a four-inch
barrel. Once again, it is imperative to
compare your firearm to the test fire¬
arm and be aware of any differences.

Many people contact me wonder¬
ing why their particular rifle or pistol
doesn’t measure up to the advertised
velocities of the ammunition com¬
panies or reloading manuals. Often
times, the barrel length is again the
issue: the advertised velocities were
established in a longer (read higher
pressure) barrel, and, for you, having
a firearm equipped with a shorter
barrel, it is only logical that your
velocities should be lower. When
dealing with Magnum cartridges,
they often reach their potential only
in long-barreled rifles and pistols, so
keep this in mind when you plan a
firearm purchase.

Sometimes, groups delivered to
the target aren’t what we wish for. We
blame the load. We blame the trigger.
We blame the wind. We blame the
fact that Orion isn’t aligned with
Cassiopeia. It has happened to me,
and I’m sure it will happen to you.

We just need to be honest enough to
admit the ugly truth to ourselves. Say
it with me, “I’m not shooting well
right now.”

When trying to develop and assess
a load you’ve created, you will need
to call upon your best shooting skills.
The goal is to try and evaluate wheth¬
er the rifle or pistol delivers consis¬
tent results (group size) and, to do
that, we have to remove as much of
the human error as possible. Shoot-

206 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

A .38 Special
on sandbags.

(Photo courtesy Massaro
Media Group & J.D.
Fielding Photography)

WHY DIDN'T THIS WORK OUT? 207

I still hear his voice in my head, as
if I were 11 again, whether he’s with
me at the bench or not. You don’t
want to know when the gun is going
to go off, so that you don’t tense
up and send the shot awry. A slow,
smooth trigger pull with “follow-
through” (imagine trying to see the
bullet rip the paper), will give the
best results. Jerking or slapping at the
trigger will not give good accuracy.

When developing loads for hard-
kicking rifles or pistols, I bring my
favorite bolt-action .22
Long Rifle with me.
Shooting that rifle in
between groups of big-
game rifles or pistols
helps prevent me from
developing a flinch, a
tough habit to break
once it sets in. With
the rimfire rifle, which
has virtually no recoil,
you can actually see the
bullet hit, so it helps
me to keep my shooting
skills sharp.

I like to shoot from
a comfortable bench,
built sturdily, and off of
sandbags. The sandbag
rest allows the rifle to
settle down and is, in
my opinion, the best

ing from uncomfortable positions or
off a shaky rest will not allow you to
obtain the true accuracy potential of
your handloads, and it will keep you
awake at night wondering if the fire¬
arm/load combination is the problem
or if it was your shooting. Grumpy
Pants taught me the basic shooting
mechanics at a very young age.

“When you get the rifle settled,”
he’d tell me, “take two deep breaths,
let the last one halfway out, and
slowly squeeze the trigger.”

The Bullseye
Camera System.

(Photo courtesy Massaro
Media Group & J.D.

Fielding Photography)

208 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

way to eliminate the human element
from the equation. Sometimes I use
one sandbag under the fore-end of the
rifle, other times I’ll use one under the
fore-end and one under the butt of the
stock. When I use only one, I like to
hold the rear portion of the stock with
my left hand (I shoot right-handed)
to help steady the rifle, leaving the
fore-end comfortably nestled in the
sandbag. The goal is not to impinge
the barrel in the fore-end of the stock,
thereby allowing it to move freely
throughout recoil.

There are vice-type shooting rests
available, and they can be a help to
hold steady, so long as the fore-end
of the rifle is free to move. You never
want to put a force on the firearm that
won’t be there under normal shooting
conditions. Doing so will affect the
point of impact and group size.

Several shooting friends use a
Lead-Sled to absorb the recoil from
hard-kicking rifles. I haven’t ever
used one myself, and I’ve heard
mixed reviews. Some guys swear
by them, because the lack of recoil
allows them to shoot much bet¬
ter, while other guys tell me about
cracked stocks from the way the
device holds the firearm. Again, I
haven’t used them, but if you plan to,
please do your research.

When developing pistol loads, I
use the same one-sandbag and two-
breath technique described for rifle
shooting, put I usually place my left
hand under my right, for the steadiest
hold. This grip works well for me.
The goal in either case is to hold the
firearm as steady as possible, to give
repeatable results.

Hey, speaking of the shooting
bench, I found a new company that
makes a rather innovative product.
Bullseye Camera Systems has a
wireless target camera that you set
up about 10 feet away from your
target, align the laser pointer to the
center of the bull’s-eye and, when
you switch it on, the device interfac¬
es with your Windows-based laptop
computer, iPhone, or iPad. In other
words, the target images are deliv¬
ered to the device you choose, at the
bench, and the 100-yard shuffle is
a thing of the past! You can isolate
individual shots or groups of shots
on your device, record group size,
etc., out to 600 yards with the basic
model and out to 2,000 yards with
the extended range version. Now,
not only is it really cool to have the
group size and image recorded on
your phone or laptop, but think about
how much time you’ll save waiting
for your heart rate to slow down after
you’ve walked 100 yards (or more)
to the target and then again for the
return trip. It really pays off at the
300-yard plus ranges. This is a truly
ingenious product. I am a bit spoiled,
having a personal 200-yard rifle
range on premises, but I can imagine
that these camera systems will be a
hit with just about any rifle or pistol
club in America!

Now, let’s examine some problems
as they occur at the reloading bench.

There’s nothing worse than a
stuck case. You seat the case in the
shellholder, work the press handle,
and bam\ You simply can not remove
that dirty bugger from the sizing die.
Maybe you’ve even ripped off the

WHY DIDN'T THIS WORK OUT? 209

210 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

That hole must be tapped with
the supplied tapping tool.

I The hardened screw is threaded
' into the tapped hole in the web.

case rim trying. Ten seconds ago you
had a great new hobby, now you’re
reaching for the rocks glass and two
fingers of bourbon. You’re asking
yourself, Why me, Lord, why me?

Well, friend, we’ve all done it.

In fact, this happens so often that
many companies have marketed the
solution: the stuck case remover. I
use an RCBS model. With it I take
the provided drill bit to drill through
the flash hole and into the case’s
web, and then I use the provided tap
to thread the newly drilled hole. The
kit includes a hardened screw that
threads into the tapped hole and, one
crank at a time, it draws the stuck
case out of the resizing die.

Why did it happen? An insufficient
amount of case lube. Lubricating the

cases in just the proper fashion is
important. Not enough lubrication and
the cases will stick in the die like pea¬
nut butter to the roof of your mouth.
Too much lubricant, and the cases de¬
velop those funky little shoulder dents
that can ruin the appearance of your
shiny, wonderful little creations.

Cartridge cases, as I’ve said, are
generally made of brass or nickel-
coated brass. Brass is used primar¬
ily because of its malleability, or
ability to mold, bend, and flow. It is
much less rigid than steel, and the
cases can be reused several times.
However, they don’t last forever. It
is important to keep a record of how
many times the cases have been fired,
resized, and reloaded. When brass
cartridge cases have reached the end

The neck of
this .22-250
Remington
has split from
being fired and
resized too
many times.
Toss it away!

212 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

of their days, they lose their malle¬
ability and become brittle. When this
happens, they are prone to split in the
neck. When you see this symptom,
it is crucial that you remove and de¬
stroy these cases. They are not safe.
As expensive as cartridge cases are
these days, there is no reason to use
unsafe components.

Sometimes, after running the
case through a seating die set up to
give a roll crimp (e.g., the .45 Long
Colt, .357 Magnum, .45-70 Govern¬
ment, and many hard-recoiling safari
calibers), you may see that the case
appears crumpled or that the shoul¬
der area is bulged or rolled. The
problem? The seating die is adjusted
too low, giving too much crimp and
actually crushing the case as it does
so. You don’t ever want to try and fire
ammunition that is bulged or has a
rolled shoulder, as it can be danger¬
ous to the weapon and the shooter.

Obviously, if you have this prob¬
lem, you need to adjust your seating
die. But why not cut to the chase and

The .458 Winchester Magnum on the right is a
victim of too much crimp and not enough flare.
That caused the case to crumple.

prevent the problem in the first place?
When I’m starting a new load, I often
use three or four dummy rounds (bul¬
let and case, no primer or powder) to
adjust the dies properly.

WHY DIDN'TTHIS WORK OUT? 213

CHAPTER 9

SPECIALTY SITUATIONS

et’s get into some of the differ¬
ent situations that are note¬
worthy and discuss the ins and
outs of dealing with them, though in
no particular order.

MILITARY RIFLES
AND MILITARY BRASS

Military brass can be of great
value to the reloader. The surplus,
once-fired brass can often be had at a
small fraction of the cost of purchas¬
ing new brass. But those shooters
who shoot military ammunition or use
military brass for their rifles need to
pay special attention to the techniques
necessary to prepare these particular
cases for reloading.

There are a couple things you need
to keep in mind about military brass.
First, the case walls are generally
thicker than in the sporting version
of the same case. Second, the primers
are crimped and often sealed into the
primer pocket.

Let’s handle the second problem
first. A tedious inspection of all mili¬
tary cases is in order, as sometimes
these cases are not manufactured to
the same tight tolerances as you’ll
usually find in their sporting counter¬
parts. I tumble my military brass first,
before resizing, so I can better inspect
the cases for split necks, severe dents,
or rims that are bent from heavy
extraction. After that’s done, I move
to the primer.

Most military brass
has a crimp to hold the
primer in. The case on
the left has the crimp
ring, the case on the
right does not.

(Photos both pages courtesy
Massaro Media Group &

J.D. Fielding Photography)

214 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

On military brass, there is a small
band of brass at the rim of the primer
pocket, designed to hold the primer
in place during the most rigorous
battle conditions and rough handling
of military ammunition. This poses
a pair of problems to the reloader.

One, it is more difficult to remove
the spent primer. Two, the crimp ring
must be removed before installing a
new primer.

I recommend installing a hardened
decapping pin to help remove those
wedged-in military primers. You’ll feel
the difference in the first few rounds of
military brass you try to resize; there
is a considerable amount of extra re¬
sistance when you try and pop out that
primer. The hardened pin will not bend
or break as easily as a standard pin,
so it lets you get a bit more “gorilla”
when removing the primer.

Once that primer is removed, you
have to get rid of that little crimp ring
that’s built into the primer pocket.

There are two methods used to make
this little obstruction go away: either
cut it out or swage it out.

There are many hand tools that will
cut or ream out the military crimp.
Some are very simple, like the Hor-
nady or Lyman pocket reamer, while
others work on a hand crank principle,
such as the L.E. Wilson reamer that
works in conjunction with the compa¬
ny’s case trimming device. Some cut¬
ting tools used to remove the military
crimp are built for use with electric
case preparation machines. The RCBS
case-prep station, for instance, has
an attachment specially designed for
removing the military crimp from both
large and small primer pockets. It uses
the rotating heads on the top of the
machine and easily cuts out the crimp
at the higher rpm settings. Hornady
offers a similar tool for its case trim¬
ming machine.

The second method, swaging,
squeezes the brass ring back into the

The Dillon Super
Swage 600 easily
swages out the
military primer
crimp ring.

SPECIALTY SITUATIONS 215

case head, with little or no problem at
all. Some swaging tools mount to the
press and use the leverage of the press
to squeeze out that crimp. My favorite
tool for swaging military brass primer
pockets is a separate bench-mounted
device. The RCBS Bench Mount
Primer Pocket Swager is a fine tool,
but my particular tool of choice is the
Dillon Super Swage 600. The simple
little unit uses leverage to swage that
crimp right out of your hair and works
quickly and effectively. Either tool is
available in the small primer pocket
size (for .223/5.56mm) and the large
primer pocket size (for .308/7.62mm
NATO and the .30-06 Springfield).

Once the brass is clean and well
inspected and the primer crimp is
removed, you must look still further at

Hodgdon’s H335 is a
great choice for .223
Remington/5.556mm
loading in the military-
style rifles.

the primer pocket. Now you’re look¬
ing for excess primer sealant, which
must be scraped out, as well as a flash
hole that is burred and has metal
protruding into the primer pocket. You
see, most military brass has a punched
flash hole, unlike sporting brass cases,
which have a reamed flash hole. When
a flash hole gets punched through
the case web from the mouth, it
sometimes leaves ragged brass in the
primer pocket, so the primer pocket
scraper is almost essential here, to re¬
move excess sealant and also any bits
of brass left over from the punching
process. I would also at this time use
a flash hole tool to true-up the hole
and ensure you have a concentric flash
hole for perfect ignition.

Now onto the first issue with
military brass, it’s thicker walls. The
outside dimensions of the cartridge
case, even in military brass, must be
held to the same SAAMI specifica¬
tions as the thinner sporting brass, but
the thicker case walls of military brass
reduce their case capacity. Because
of this reduction in allowable volume,
you must load with an appropriate
reduction in your powder charge.
Generally, a 10-percent reduction
should work out just fine, but an even
better idea would be to consult a re¬
loading manual that produced its test
data using military brass. The Speer
Reloading Manual No. 13 (which
is a manual I consult often), used
Israeli Military cases for its test data
in both the .223 Remington and .308
Winchester listings. Such sets of data
would, therefore, require no reduction.

Another consideration. The
semi-automatic action of the popular

216 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Redding .308 Winchester bushing dies. (Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group &J.D. Fielding Photography)

military-style rifles that we sportsmen
and -women enjoy can be rather harsh
on ammunition, especially during
the phase in which the cartridge is
picked up from the rifle’s magazine
and delivered into the chamber for the
next squeeze of the trigger. This action
treats the unfired cartridge much like
the inertia hammer does when you are
trying to pull bullets out of a case. The
Sierra Rifle & Handgun Reloading
Data, Edition V tells the tale of bullets
being pulled out of their cases between
0.002-inch and 0.007-inch during
loading from magazine to chamber.
This can dramatically affect accuracy.
A crimp on the case mouth could help
prevent that bullet from moving, but
putting a crimp on a bullet that has no
cannelure is never a good idea. Sierra

recommends using a Redding bush¬
ing die, so I grabbed the telephone
and gave my pal Robin Sharpless at
Redding a jingle, to further discuss
this issue.

The goal is to have the best neck
tension possible on the bullet, to hold
it in place during the cycling process.
What Robin told me the bushing dies
provide is a series of bushings, in
0.002-inch increments, which do not
overwork the neck portion of the brass
any more than is absolutely necessary.
After measuring the outside dimen¬
sion of the brass you intend to use
with a bullet installed, the bushing of
an appropriate size in installed in the
die and, upon resizing, the case neck
is squeezed down a minimum dimen¬
sion before being worked over the

SPECIALTY SITUATIONS 217

expander ball. This process allows the
brass in the neck portion of the case
to live longer.

By not overworking the neck
(because it is a thicker military case
wall in a conventional die), you will
get a longer case life and the brass
will remain concentric longer. Bet¬
ter concentricity equals better neck
tension and, therefore, reduces the
amount of the “inertia hammer” effect.
Sharpless knows of what he speaks.

I also believe that, when resizing
brass, military or otherwise, for the
auto-loading military-style rifles, you
should be using a small-base resizing
die. The small-base dies will resize
the case completely, all the way to the
base, to prevent any jams in your auto¬

loading rifles. This is a good thing.
Jams are awful.

Another thing to consider is that
many of the military rifles your cases
are loaded for use a firing pin that
protrudes during the loading process
and, as violent as the cycling is, your
ammunition should use a primer that
is of military specification. The CCI
No. 34 Large Rifle primer and the
CCI No. 41 Small Rifle primer have
much harder cups than their sporting
counterparts (the CCI 200 and CCI
400, respectively), and are designed
for this application. I believe these
harder primers greatly reduce the
chance of a slam-fire (an accidental
firing when the rifle goes into bat¬
tery). These primers have a magnum

RCBS Small
Base dies for the
.223 Remington.

(Photos both pages courtesy
Massaro Media Group &
J.D. Fielding Photography)

218 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

A .45-120 Sharps
case waiting in the
loading block for
blackpowder to be
dropped through
the brass tube.

primer spark, yet should be fine for all
military rifle applications.

BLACKPOWDER CARTRIDGES

Our classic lever-action and single¬
shot cartridges were originally loaded
with blackpowder. They can still be
loaded that way. However, handling
and loading blackpowder requires an
entirely different mindset, as well as
some special loading techniques.

The loading of blackpowder
cartridges is a small world unto itself,
and entire volumes have been writ¬
ten on the subject. I’ll do my best to
enlighten you on process, but I highly
suggest you do all the research you
can and ask many questions before
you start. These procedures are fin¬
icky, and they require both different

tools and more experimentation than
does loading with smokeless powder.

Unlike smokeless powder, the
BATFE classifies blackpowder as an
explosive. It burns much faster than
any smokeless powder and is suscep¬
tible to reaction with static electric¬
ity. Therefore you should never use
any plastic measuring device with
blackpowder. All the tools used for
handling blackpowder should be made
from brass, although, oddly, I’ve seen
aluminum products pop up for sale by
major manufacturers. That aside, I like
to stick to brass components, as they
have been used safely for well more
than 100 years.

Modern blackpowder substitutes
like Triple Seven, Pyrodex, or Ameri¬
can Pioneer are all loaded in the same

SPECIALTY SITUATIONS 219

The brass drop tube, used to load blackpowder cartridges.

220 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

manner as true blackpowder. How¬
ever, the after-shooting gun cleanup is
a whole lot easier with the substitutes.
Either way, all of them clean up with
soap and hot water (and a bunch of
elbow grease), and the sooner you
clean after shooting your firearm, the
better off you’ll be. Blackpowder is
very corrosive, both real and substi¬
tute, and will both make a mess of the
bore and eat up your brass cases if
left unclean.

Choosing a primer for a blackpow¬
der case is a bit of a process. Some of
the smaller cases (say .40-caliber and
below), can use a Large Pistol primer
in lieu of a rifle primer. The smaller
spark is still sufficient to ignite the
charge of very fast burning blackpow¬
der. There is also some discussion of
the pistol primer actually improving
accuracy, as the lighter spark moves
the powder column less upon ignition
than a hotter spark from a rifle primer
or magnum rifle primer would. I can’t
attest to an actual improvement in
my rifles, but I know enough to listen
to the masters in this field. As you
get into the bigger cases and larger
powder charges, the rifle primer will
certainly come into play. Again, read
the books on this topic to become the
most proficient.

Now, unlike their smokeless pow¬
der fueled counterparts, blackpowder
cartridges have their charges measured
by volume, instead of weight. The goal
is to load the case with a slight com¬
pression of the blackpowder, so that
there is no air space in the case.

The powder is loaded into the
case with a brass drop tube, usually
one about 24 inches long, that length

needed to achieve a more uniform
compression. Again, the use of all¬
brass loading components is very
important to eliminating the chance of
a static electric charge developing.

In a bottleneck cartridge, like the
.30-30 WCF, .32 Winchester Special,
or the .38-56 Winchester, the powder
is filled to a point about halfway up
the case neck and the bullet is then
installed to give Vi 6 - or Vg-inch of
powder compression. Filler wads cut
to the specific diameter appropriate to
the cartridge are installed at the base
of the bullet, to give uniform compres¬
sion and to help reduce lead fouling in
the gun’s bore by preventing the burn¬
ing powder from melting the lead at
the base of the bullet. These wads can
be made of vegetable fiber (available
from most retailers who sell reloading
components), or punched from milk
carton material. It is very important
that, when you load a bottlenecked
blackpowder cartridge, you do not seat
the bullet too deeply, otherwise the
wads will fall below the case neck and
you’ll lose all that uniformity.

When you load for the straight-
walled blackpowder cartridges like the
.38-55 Winchester or the ultra popular
.45-70 Government, the same case flar¬
ing and crimping techniques will apply
that you use in a straight-wall smoke¬
less powder loading. You’ll want to
measure the amount of powder needed
in the case to give the necessary level
of compression, again, Vi 6 - or V 8 -inch
once the bullet is seated in the case. If
you want to reduce the load, either be¬
cause of a lack of accuracy or a surplus
of recoil, the space can be (carefully)
filled with a specially made mate-

SPECIALTY SITUATIONS 221

rial called Puff-Lon. This substance
is specifically made for the filling of
extra space in blackpowder and other
cartridges. I’ve read of folks using
Dacron, cotton balls, and even dry,
uncooked Cream of Wheat cereal to fill
up the case, but I do not recommend
using anything other than Puff-Lon.

To obtain proper compression of
your blackpowder load, use a compres¬
sion die instead of using the bullet to
compress the powder upon seating.

The results are well worth the extra
step. Bullet seating in the lever-action
rifles, for instance, dictates that you
must adhere to the COL of the pub¬
lished cartridge, but, in the single-shot
Sharps-style rifles, you can experiment
with seating depth and COL. Never let
the bullet touch the lands of the rifling,
in order to keep pressures safe, but
you can get close to them if that gives
better accuracy in your rifle.

Whether to use FFg or FFFg will
depend on the cartridge you are load¬
ing. The blackpowder cases of .30- to

.40-calibers usually like to use FFFg,
and the bigger cases can effectively
use FFg. I know some blackpowder
shooters who use Fg (usually classified
as a cannon or musket powder), in the
big .45-120 and .50-140. The brand of
powder is also a personal choice, but
some powders have different loading
recommendations. Goex, Swiss, Ele¬
phant, and Schuetzen are all reputable
brands that have delivered consistent
results to blackpowder shooters for
many years.

Bullets for blackpowder metal¬
lic loading should be of soft lead and
coated with a bullet lube to keep the
lead fouling soft inside the bore. Many
blackpowder shooters use a blow tube
to deliver moist breath into the bore be¬
tween shots, as the humidity will soften
lead fouling. This tube is especially
handy when shooting in a very dry cli¬
mate, as lead fouling becomes a prob¬
lem much sooner. Soft (moist) fouling
is okay for a while, but hard fouling
will affect accuracy much sooner.

The .300 Winchester Magnum and its short neck.

222 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

The author’s neighbor Dave and his .350 Remington Magnum.

SHORT NECKS AND LONG BULLETS

There are a few situations you’ll
run into while loading, where the
SAAMI-specified COL won’t al¬
low you to load certain bullets with
a long ogive. A couple examples
come quickly to mind in the .300
Winchester Magnum and the .350
Remington Magnum.

When Winchester developed
its .300 Magnum, it used the basic
formula that had worked so well with
the .264, .338, and .458. It took the
.375 H&H case, shortened it to fit in
a standard long-action (.30-06-length)
receiver, and necked it to hold the ap¬
propriate diameter bullet. Well, when
the fourth in the series appeared,
everyone expected it to have the
same case length as the predecessors,
2.500 inches, but Winchester fooled

everyone. What it did was move the
shoulder further forward, which gave
the case a length of 2.620 inches. This
still allowed it to fit in the long-action,
but gave additional case capacity.

It also left it with a neck length of
0.264-inch, which doesn’t sit well
with some folks, being less than one
caliber in length; it’s purported the
neck doesn’t give proper tension. I’ve
never had an issue with that, but, what
this new configuration did leave us
with was very little room between the
case mouth and the maximum COL.

If you have a new long-range bullet
with a sleek secant ogive, you may
have an issue. Problem is, if you load
that bullet to the maximum COL listed
by SAAMI, the short neck portion of
the case will be sitting on the curved
ogive of the long bullet, rather than the

SPECIALTY SITUATIONS 223

The shorter .35-caliber bullets work very well with the stubby .350 Remington Magnum .

224 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

parallel sides of the bullet.

This situation is dangerous, because
the bullet can actually fall into the case
without enough neck tension on the
bullet. The same concept applies to the
.350 Remington Magnum, as its COL
is limited by the magazine length.

If it is a single-shot rifle and the
bullet does not come in contact with
the lands and grooves, it is perfectly
acceptable to seat bullets out past the
SAAMI maximum dimension, but, in
a bolt-action magazine rifle, you are
limited to magazine length. There are
bullet companies that have come to the
rescue, such as Nosier, which recog¬
nized this problem, especially in the
.300, and produced its famous Parti¬
tion bullet with a “Protected Point.” In
this, Nosier rounded the nose slightly,
allowing the handloader to move the
bullet forward and ensure that the
proper neck tension was produced,
thus eliminating all chances of the bul¬
let falling into the case.

With the .350 Remington case,

I’ve found I have to stay away from

can’t be used in
the short .350
Remington Magnum
case, as the case
mouth cannot seat
on the bullet ogive.

some of the longer, sleeker bullets
and stick with the round-nose and
semi-spitzer bullets. A particular test
rifle I use from time to time is my
neighbor Dave’s Remington 700 Clas¬
sic, because we gain a bit of room in
the magazine length over the tradi¬
tional Remington Model 7 that is nor¬
mally chambered for this cartridge.
The dilemma is a little different with
this one, in that, when we maintain
the maximum COL the magazine will
allow, the longest 250-grain spitzers
in .358-inch caliber will sit so deep
into the cartridge case, the case
mouth is well into the bullet ogive
and the bullet can fall into the case
and, even if it didn’t, there wouldn’t
be enough case capacity to attain
proper velocity. In this particular
case, we want to use bullets that keep
their weight forward and their shape

SPECIALTY SITUATIONS 225

more rounded. North Fork 225-grain-
ers, Hornady 200- and 250-grain In¬
terlocks, and other bullets of similar
shape and style will help you find that
perfect balance between case capac¬
ity, velocity, and overall length.

TWIST RATES AND ACCURACY

Sometimes you’ll read about barrels
or cartridges that won’t stabilize certain
bullets. The .308 Winchester, when
it was introduced, had a twist rate of
1:12, that is, the rifling in the bore will
make one complete revolution over 12
inches of barrel. When compared to the
.30-06, which generally featured a 1:10
twist rate, the .308 Winchester with its
slower rate of twist wouldn’t stabilize
the long, heavy 220-grain bullets. As a
kid, I couldn’t make sense of this. Why
wouldn’t it stabilize a bullet designed
for the same bore dimension as the .30-
06? Why would the designers develop a
barrel that wouldn’t work with all bullet
weights within a certain caliber?

01’ Grumpy Pants was such a pro¬
ponent of the .308 Winchester (largely
based upon his experience in the
Army National Guard basic training,
in 1968), he convinced me the .308
was more than sufficient for anything
I would ever hunt. That didn’t quell
the burning curiosity of this young
man—I simply had to know what I
was missing.

It took a while, but I figured it out.
The longer a bullet is, the faster it
must be spun in order for it to arrive
on target without turning sideways, or
“keyholing.” This term derives from
the imprint made on a target when
a bullet is no longer rotating on its

long axis. Instead of making a perfect
caliber-sized hole in the paper, it hits
sideways (or radically off axis) and the
tear is elongated, like a keyhole. The
bottom line is that the .308’s 1:12 twist
rate doesn’t spin the long, 220-grain
bullets enough to hold them in an
on-axis rotation. The .30-06, on the
other hand, with its 1:10 twist, will
stabilize them just fine. Understanding
how twist works, then, with my .308
Winchester loads, I utilize (very well,

I might add), the lighter-for-caliber
bullets, those between 125 and 180
grains. Simply put, use the right tool
for the right job.

This same issue was very detri¬
mental to the early sales of the .244
Remington. The .244 was a .257 Rob¬
erts (or 7x57 Mauser case), necked
down to hold 6mm bullets. The beauty
of the 6mm cartridges is that they
are capable of pulling double duty on
both varmints and deer/antelope-sized
game. The only issue was that the twist
rate in the barrels for the .244 was
1:12. This twist worked very well with
the lighter varmint-weight bullets, like
the 55-, 60-, and 70-grain bullets, but
would not work well with the deer/
antelope-weight bullets, the larger 90-,
100-, and 105-grainers, because the
twist rate was too slow.

The closest competition to the
.244 Remington, the .243 Winchester,
was based on the 51mm-long .308
Winchester case. When you compare
the case capacity between the .244
Remington (with a 1:12 twist rate)
and the .243 Winchester (with a 1:10
twist rate), the .244 is the clear winner.
But the .243 Winchester is the more
versatile of the two, because it would

226 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

stabilize, although at a slower veloc¬
ity, the bullets suitable for deer and
antelope hunting.

Remington took eight years to cor¬
rect the situation, revising the barrel
twist from 1:12 to 1:9 and, eventu¬

ally, renaming the cartridge the 6mm
Remington. The new twist rate would
stabilize any 6mm bullet within the
realm of sanity, but, unfortunately for
Remington, the rot had set in. The
marketing world is a finicky thing,

The author’s dad, oT Grumpy Pants, is actually happy, when he has his .308 Winchester in hand.

SPECIALTY SITUATIONS 227

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

and, by the time Remington revised
the twist rate and name, the .243 Win¬
chester had caught on like wildfire.
This is why, among the 6mm cases,
the .243 reigns supreme and some
younger hunters haven’t even heard of
the larger cased .244 Remington.

What in blazes does this have to do
with our task at hand? An awful lot.
Don’t try to drive nails with a screw¬
driver. In other words, if the reloading
manual tells you a round requires a cer¬
tain twist rate to stabilize a particularly
long bullet, believe it and don’t waste
your time trying to disprove the data.

This kind of knowledge has great
relevance in the AR platform that
enjoys target-grade .223 bullets. I like
the heavy-for-caliber 62- and 69-grain
bullets, but they require a 1:10 and 1:9
minimum twists, respectively. If your
barrel has a slower twist rate (1:12 or
1:16), these bullets are off-limits to
you. Stick to the 45-, 50-, and 55-grain
projectiles. Do the research and know
your barrel’s twist rate. It will save you
a ton of time and money in trying to
get your rifle to perform well.

Wait, how do you determine the
twist rate of the rifle you own? Why,

I thought you’d never ask! Take a
cleaning rod with a freely rotating
handle and a tight fitting patch, and
insert it a couple inches into the bore.
Place a piece of tape on the rod just
ahead of the handle, place a mark on
the very top of it, and measure the
distance from the edge of the receiver
to the front of the tape. Then insert
the rod through the bore until that
mark revolves around to the top of
the rod. Measure the distance from
the edge of receiver and subtract the

two measurements. This gives you the
exact amount of bore travel it takes
to make one revolution. Boo-yah,
you’ve got your rifles rate of twist! Of
course, you could pick up the phone,
call the manufacturer, read them the
serial number, and ask them what they
installed on the gun. Either way.

OHJHE NORTHEAST WOODS!

Where I hunt, in the woods of up¬
state New York, our primary big-game
quarry is the whitetail deer. Unless
you have access to wide-open farm
fields or hunt the cut power line rights-
of-way, your shots here will average
less than 100 yards. We are permitted
to hunt with a rifle in most of the Hud¬
son Valley, as well as in the Catskill
and Adirondack mountains that I love
so much. There the woods are thick
and getting thicker. The use of a rifle
scope will give you an advantage, as
it allows you to see the tiny branches
and ends of limbs that might deflect
your bullet.

As the ranges are relatively short
in such a setting, the use of a boat-
tail spitzer isn’t necessarily needed,
but please don’t overlook the good
old round-nosed bullets! They have
several advantages, when the shots
are on the closer end of the spectrum.

First, they keep the bullet weight
forward, which means that a round¬
nosed bullet will be shorter than its
spitzer counterpart. This will give
more room within the case, so load
density doesn’t become an issue.
Simply, the bullet takes up less of
the case, so there’s less need for a
compressed load.

228 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

These are .30-caliber
bullets, a flat-base
round-nosed
220-grain (left) and a
boat-tail spitzer.

(Photo courtesy
Massaro Media Group &

J.D. Fielding Photography)

Second, and this is purely my own
observation, I believe that round¬
nosed bullets hit harder or, at least,
they have a more pronounced impact
on an animal. Many times, when I’ve
hit a deer, bear, or whatever with
a round-nosed bullet, I can see the
animal shudder upon impact. That’s
certainly not to say that the spitzer
bullets work less effectively, it’s just
that I feel that the additional meplat
diameter of the round-nose bullets
has a different hydraulic effect on
game animals.

There’s another theory, which,
in my mind has some merit and at
the very least deserves some further
investigation. The good folks at North
Fork and I had an interesting conver¬
sation about bullet meplat design and
its effect on game. The results of that
talk became the theory that a round¬

nosed bullet, with the weight held
toward the frontal portion of the bullet
(or at least more so than a spitzer or
hollowpoint), will “pull” through the
animal, much like the two wheels on a
front-wheel-drive car pull their vehicle
in a straight line. This gives the bullet
deep penetration, often a complete
pass-through. The hollowpoint or
spitzer bullet, with its weight toward
the rear of the bullet, will tend to
“push” through the animal, like a rear-
wheel-drive car, and tend to rotate or
fish-tail once resistance has been met.

Now, it would take an extensive
amount of well-controlled scientific
research to either prove or disprove
this theory, and the results could
easily be debated for hours on end.
Lacking that, what I do know is this:

I like round-nosed bullets. After
200 yards, they can’t hold a candle

SPECIALTY SITUATIONS 229

to their spitzer relations, as far as
retained energy and velocity are con¬
cerned, but, within that distance, they
are very impressive.

Think about our classic calibers
like the .30-06 Springfield, 7x57
Mauser, .30-40 Krag, .30-30 WCF, and
so on. They have all made their repu¬
tations on game with round-nosed bul¬
lets, and for good reason. They work! I
can get them to shoot to at least MOA
in my rifles, which is accurate enough
to thread the needle in the Northeast
woods, and I appreciate their perfor¬
mance on game. Give ’em a try!

THE .45 ACP: SMALL OR
LARGE PRIMER POCKET?

There’s a bunch of .45 ACP car¬
tridges on the market that are using
a small primer pocket and primer
in lieu of the standard large pocket.
Most of them utilize the lead-free
or “non-toxic” priming compound,
for use on indoor pistol ranges. The
majority of common primers feature
a small amount of lead in the priming
compound, and the goal with many
indoor shooting facilities today is to
minimize airborne lead vapor by using
bullets that are totally encapsulated
with copper, as well as these Small
Pistol non-toxic primers. I’m all about
safety and not suffering the effects of
lead poisoning, but it leaves us with
the minor dilemma of dealing with .45
ACP brass having a different primer
pocket sizes.

There is an inherent danger in try¬
ing to stuff a Large Pistol primer into
a Small Pistol primer pocket, and that
danger is primer detonation. If you

hand-prime all your pistol cases, the
risk is more easily avoided, as the resis¬
tance will be felt immediately. But, if
you use a press priming system, which
has a huge mechanical advantage but
less feel, the risk is much greater. Even
worse, should a case with the small
primer pocket get into the mix when
using a progressive press, you risk the
possibility of detonating multiple prim¬
ers. This is definitely not a good thing
and, in a small space and with powder
in the dispenser, this is the kind of
disaster you want to avoid at all costs.

The solution is to sort the daylights
out of your brass. You really want to
be certain that none of those cases
with the small primer pockets are
allowed to mingle with the other large
pocket party guests. Segregate them
and, if you choose to reload them, be
sure and prime them separately. Keep
them in a different container that’s
clearly marked, so as to avoid any and
all confusion between the two types
of brass. It is perfectly fine to load the
brass with small primer pockets, using
a Small Pistol primer and good load
data, but safety is paramount.

HOT LOADS, DUDE

To me, it’s like nails on a chalk¬
board. Invariably, someone will want to
talk about reloading and the question
spills forth from their lips like an un¬
controllable belch: “Hey, man, can you
make me some hot loads?” Um, no.
Wait, let me double-check that for you.
Yup, yeah, it’s still no. Nope. No way.

The reloading manuals have estab¬
lished their pressure limits through
rigorous testing, so there is no reason

230 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

There is such a
thing as too much
of a good thing.

(Cartoon courtesy of
Bill Gaither)

whatsoever to exceed it. Trying to
push the envelope of safe pressures to
attain higher velocities or energies or
flatter trajectories puts your firearm
and your current anatomical configu¬
ration in decided jeopardy I’ve seen
pistol shooters try to push the loads
into the realm of “+P” (high-pressure
factory loads), and have the results be
cracked cylinders, broken grips, and
so on. I’ve seen rifle shooters with
loads that are way over maximum have
their bolt-action guns lock up so tight¬

ly (a result of excessive pressures),
that they needed to beat the bolt open
with a mallet! There is no, none,
nada logical reason to do this. If the
cartridge you’ve chosen cannot deliver
the ballistics you’re looking for when
loaded within safe parameters, you’ve
chosen the wrong cartridge. A .30-06
Springfield isn’t a .300 Weatherby, a
.38 Special is not a .357 Magnum, and
a .45 ACP can’t be made to shoot like
a .45 Colt. Don’t think about it. Don’t
tinker with it. Just. Don’t.

SPECIALTY SITUATIONS 231

CHAPTER 10

SUCCESS STORIES

fter all the diligent proce¬
dures have been followed
and the proper combination
of case, powder, primer, and bullet
have been chosen, you head down
the range and look at the target with
pride, when you see a tiny little clo-
verleaf group you just put there. Joy!

Be it a varmint rifle, hunting re¬
volver, carry pistol, deer rifle, or safari
gun, the joy from a well-placed group
on the target is a thing of beauty. You

should be grinning from ear to ear!

For you and for all the others like you,
I’d like to dedicate this chapter to your
success stories and hunting memories
that have derived and will derive from
diligent handloading.

THE LEARNING CURVE

When I was introduced to han¬
dloading, I latched onto more as a
matter of economics than a desire for

f

$

1

!

!
i

i

i

I

Federal Premium ammunition is a very well-made product, but, as a young man, it was out of the
author’s price range. He doesn’t miss those days!

232 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

The author’s dad insists on a 165-grain bullet over IMR4064 in his .308 Winchester loads. They don’t
suck, for the record.

supreme accuracy. Put bluntly, I didn’t
have a pot, let alone a window to toss
it out of; a box of premium factory
cartridges was very expensive for a
20-year-old hunter.

My Dad and I split the cost of some
reloading gear and, as we both shot
.308 Winchester bolt-action rifles for
deer, spent some great time together
developing a load that would suffice
for both of us. We chose the 165-grain
Hornady spire point, 43.5 grains of
IMR4064 (Grumpy Pant’s “official”
powder—seriously, the guy ought to
be sponsored), and a CCI200 Large

Rifle primer. Both guns printed three-
shot groups of about IVi inches at 100
yards, which was perfectly good for
the both of us. Many deer fell to those
loads and many great memories were
made in the deer woods—but then
something happened.

I started reading about reloading.
Our level of accuracy, at least to me,
was unacceptable, and I had to start
my load experimentation immediate¬
ly! Ah, the beginnings of an addiction.
I drove Dad insane on a daily basis
with statistics on new powders, pre¬
mium bullets, loading techniques, etc.

SUCCESS STORIES 233

I simply couldn’t get enough. I even
had the audacity to leave behind the
blessed combination of a 165-grain
.308-inch bullet over IMR4064, much
to GP’s chagrin.

The first load I ever personally
developed used the 125-grain Nosier
Ballistic Tip and (gulp!) IMR4320.
The only way I sold it to Dad was to
prove to him that the factories used
IMR4320 as fuel for the cartridges he
used as a youth. That particular load
still prints 3 /4-inch groups, and, al¬
though light-for-caliber, they kill very
effectively, when properly placed.
They are hell on both deer and coy¬
otes. Approaching 3,000 fps, they are
also very flat shooting. Imagine my
pride, when I showed my dad I could
develop a load all by my lonesome!
This was awesome!

It was GP’s turn next to break
stride from the family .308 load.

Whilst preparing for a caribou hunt
in the northern reaches of Quebec, he
wanted something that shot a bit flatter
than the revered .308 Winchester. He
couldn’t quite leave the .30-caliber in
and of itself behind (that would come
some years later), and, so, chose the
.300 Winchester Magnum.

After the first hunt, using his
165-grain bullets (which delivered me¬
diocre accuracy, but ultimately yielded
the caribou), I began to read. I dis¬
covered that the .300 was best served
with 180-grain bullets. This discovery
coincided with my thirtieth birthday,
upon which I received mine own .300
Winchester as a birthday gift.

Once again, load development was
done with my dad. We found that an
appropriate load of Alliant’s Reloder

19 and a Sierra 180-grain boat-tail
gave wonderful accuracy, and it was
with this load that I took my first head
of “exotic” big game: a caribou bull,
in Quebec, dad alongside me. Good
times, for sure!

Developing a load for your firearm
is a process of trial and error. There are
nearly infinite combinations of primer/
case/powder/bullet, and having your
own unique load is part of the fun.

Many times a rifle or handgun will like
more than one load, and I often have
on hand three or four different loads,
each using different combinations, for
my firearms. Start at the low end of the
scale within the manual, work up slowly
and, odds are, you’ll eventually find the
combination to provide the accuracy
and velocities you’re looking for.

AN AFRICAN CLASSIC

Throughout this book I’ve men¬
tioned my .375 H&H Magnum. It is a
push-feed, post-’64 Winchester Model
70. I’ve spent an awful lot of time
behind the trigger of that rifle, first
because it had a structural issue and I
couldn’t get it to shoot properly, and,
second because I just simply loved it
by the time I did get it to shoot right.

I took that .375 with me on that afore¬
mentioned caribou hunt, because I just
had to test it (it worked just fine). I
also lent it out to GP for his first safari
to South Africa. I built him a load
around the 250-grain Sierra boat-tail
GameKing, with a charge of IMR4350
sparked by a Federal Magnum Rifle
primer, and got that big gun to shoot
well under one inch. Dad had a great
safari, taking both a 39-inch gems-

234 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

bok and a 5 3-inch kudu on the same
day. The bullet was a good choice for
African plains game, and to say I was
both honored and proud that Dad took
my rifle and my handloads on safari is
an understatement.

My own safari was to come two
years later, and I brought both the .300
and the .375 across the pond. I was
jonesin’ for an eland, the largest African
antelope, one that can weigh up to a ton.
That’s an awful lot of antelope! I cooked
up a load using the 300-grain Swift A-
Frame in my .375 H&H, and this load
shot so well, it would be pretty much
the only formula I would use in this rifle
for a decade. I still shoot it.

Well, long story short, the only shot
my eland bull would present me was
one at 400 yards, though at least it
was over very open ground. It was the
preparation for this safari and the time
spent at both the reloading bench and
the shooting bench that allowed me to
make that shot, the longest I’ve made
to date. I’d printed %-inch groups with
that bullet and chronographed the load,
so I knew the trajectory very well. I’d
zeroed the rifle to be dead on at 200
yards and prepared a drop chart on a
laminated card, so I would know the
drop out to 400 yards, which I imag¬
ined was well past the limits of my
shooting. With a bit of encouragement
from my Professional Hunter, who had
seen me shoot for almost a week by
the time the shot on the eland came,

I leaned the old girl against a termite
mound, in the prone position, held for
the appropriate amount of holdover,
and adjusted for the crosswind.

When the sound of the bullet
hitting the shoulder bone of that big

bull drifted back on the wind, I began
jumping up and down like a man
who’d just won the lottery! Ecstatic,
overjoyed, proud, and euphoric would
all be adjectives applicable to that mo¬
ment. The PH was equally jazzed, pro¬
claiming, “I’d really hoped you’d make
that shot!” Later he confessed he’d
never have taken it himself—rascal!
Point is, without having developed that
load personally, putting it through the
chronograph, and spending the time at
the bench learning how the cartridge
performed, I never, ever would have
even attempted that shot. Nonetheless,
that beautiful eland bull sits with pride
in my trophy room, preserved eternally
as a pedestal mount, and holds a place
of honor among my hunting trophies.

You know what the really cool
thing about that hunt was? The .375
H&H is not considered a long-range
cartridge by any means, but, through
handloading, I connected on the
longest shot I’ve ever attempted. That
rifle has three loads that work well at
distance using 235-grain Barnes TSX
bullets, Sierra 250-grain spitzer boat-

The author’s big eland bull that fell
to the 300-grain Swift A-Frame, in
South Africa, in 2004. (Author Photo)

SUCCESS STORIES 235

tails, and 300-grain Swift A-Frames
or Hornady Solids. It’s a pretty versa¬
tile setup, if you ask me.

WHEELGUNS ARE WONDERFUL!

It wasn’t long after this safari that I
received my pistol permit, the acquisi¬

tion of which is a lengthy process here
in New York. I immediately drove to
my local gun shop and ordered what I
considered to be a really cool revolver,
a Ruger Blackhawk chambered in .45
(Long) Colt, with a stainless finish,
IVi-inch barrel, and adjustable sights.
This is a fetchin ’ iron!

236 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

The factory loads I purchased had
255-grain lead bullets, but didn’t im¬
press me with their accuracy—I knew
I could do better with that long barrel
and adjustable sights to work with.

It was my intention to carry this
wheelgun as a sidearm on my hunts in
the Adirondacks, where a healthy popu¬

lation of bears exists. I wanted a heavy,
stiff bullet that would get me out of
trouble with a black bear, one that was
accurate enough to place itself where it
needed to go (provided I did my part,
of course). I settled on the 300-grain
Homady XTP bullet. Then I read an
article in the Nosier Manual No. 4 , writ-

SUCCESS STORIES 237

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

The author’s .45 Colt
loves 300-grain Hornady
XTPs and 255-grain cast
lead bullets, but it was
handloading that got him
to that level of affection.

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group &
J.D. Fielding Photography)

ten by none other than Hank Williams,
Jr., indicating that the .45 Colt liked to
be fueled by Alliant’s Unique powder,
so I topped that XTP with a Large Pistol
Magnum primer and a liberal dose of
Unique stuffed into a Starline case and,
after load development, was printing
impressive groups with the hand-
cannon. Turns out that Hank Junior was
spot on with his powder choice.

Although Unique tends to burn a
bit on the dirty side, I don’t mind the

cleaning chore, when the pistol will
ring steel out to 75 yards with my ag¬
ing eyes. It’s great to get together with
friends and show them what this gun
is capable of, and, as a sidearm in the
northern woods, I feel very confident
about staying alive, should a bear pose
a problem while hiking, camping, or
otherwise. Later, I bought a bunch of
those 255-grain cast lead bullets that
the factory ammunition was loaded
with and, with a different charge

238 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

weight of Unique, also got them to
shoot quite accurately. They make an
economical choice for practicing with
my Ruger revolver, whether plinking
or target shooting.

SMALLBORE SUCCESS

In the 1990s, the coyote popula¬
tion in upstate New York exploded.
Sightings during deer season had
become common. With an overdose
of deer predation looming, the State

placed a season on coyotes from
October through March. We routinely
shot ’yotes during deer season as op¬
portunities presented themselves, but
soon we began actively pursuing them
to extend our time afield. My .308
Winchester worked fine for this, and I
noticed that the coyotes were none too
dead, but pelt damage was severe. Not
really needing an excuse to purchase
another rifle, I perused the loading
manuals and settled on the .22-250

SUCCESS STORIES 239

The author’s favorite varmint rig, a Ruger Model 77 Mkll in .22-250 Remington, with a Hogue over¬
molded stock and a Leupold Vari-X III 6.5-20x40mm AO scope.

Remington. Flat-shooting, minimally
recoiling, and with a reputation for
hair-splitting accuracy, I felt this
would be the coyote gun for me.

I’ve been very happy with that
choice. I ordered a Ruger Model 77
Mark II with a sporting-contour barrel
and topped it with a Leupold Vari-X
III 6.5-20x40mm scope that has an
adjustable objective lens. It’s a serious
varmint rig, right there, gotta tell you.

In hindsight, I probably should
have ordered the rifle with a bull bar¬
rel, to avoid barrel heat buildup, but
I’ll get to that in a minute. The initial
load I developed used the Winchester
55-grain FMJ over IMR4320, travel¬
ling at 3,350 fps. Group size is usually
around 3 /4-inch, and while that load is
fine for coyotes and foxes, I knew the

gun could do better, but I still had one
issue with the hardware: The trigger
Ruger put in the Mk II broke at about
six pounds. In the inimitable words
of Pink Floyd, “This shall not do.” A
quick phone call to Timney Triggers
solved the dilemma. In fact, a replace¬
ment trigger was such an improve¬
ment over the factory version that the
groups were cut in half.

Now, in my quest for accuracy, I
discovered there was a powder that
went hand in hand with the .22-250
Remington, Hodgdon’s H380. This
powder was a WWII military surplus
powder that Bruce Hodgdon fell deep¬
ly in love with, so deep, in fact, that he
named the powder after his pet load:
38.0 grains under a 55-grain bullet. So
H380 was born, and I am here to tes-

240 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

tify that this powder works very, very
well in this case. I started with Mr.

H’s chosen load, but it needed some
tweaking in my gun, so I prepared
groups of three cartridges with powder
charges that varied, up and down, by
0.1-grain. It didn’t take long before I
found what I was looking for. My own
pet load for my .22-250 is 38.4 grains
of H380 over a 53-grain Sierra Match-
King flat-base hollowpoint. Group
size averaged 3 / 8 -inch and the round
travelled at 3,550 fps. Coyotes and
foxes fell like the French Army.

THE HANDLOADERS SYNDICATE

Let us fast forward, with the same
rifle in mind, to a friendly handload-
ers’ competition. The best handloaders
in my area congregated at our local
brew pub and, upon conclusion of

some two and half hours of semi-
intelligent discussion, we had settled
upon a date, time, and place to have
a shooting competition. Those in the
know would gather their accoutre¬
ments, their prized rifles, the best
handloads they believed they could
produce, and congregate to test their
various mettles. The competition was
divided into two classes: Smallbore
(.17-caliber through 6.5mm) and
large-bore (.277-caliber through .375).
The range would be 200 yards, with
three-shot groups from a benchrest,
on a beautiful September Saturday.

I brought the .22-250 along for
the smallbore competition, to be
placed in the battle next to a .223 and
.243, both in Remington 700s with
full one-inch pipes, and a Weath-
erby Vanguard Sub-MOA in .257
Weatherby Magnum. Nothing was at

The Handloaders Syndicate: a meeting of the minds.

SUCCESS STORIES 241

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

Pig-Newton’s sweetheart .308, a Remington Model 700 Police Special, with Leupold scope and
McMillan stock. It is deadly accurate.

stake but my bragging rights among
my peers and some dignity, so I’d
prepared the best of the best, using
Norma cases, Federal match-grade
primers, and my own developed load
based on H380.1 hand-trimmed the
cases, weighed out the Sierra Match-
King projectiles, and did my best to
cobble together the components.

It worked. The .223 fell victim
to my handloads first, and then the
.257 Weatherby. My pals couldn’t
believe the sporter-weight barrel was
shooting better groups than the bull
barrels and specialty rifles. Even the
.243 fell, though it didn’t go down
easily, as the shooter was a worthy
adversary, but, in the end, the pencil-
barreled .22-250 reigned supreme.

Damned fine handloading, and a bit
of decent shooting on my part, led to
the “championship.”

That same good loading technique
came back to bite me in the bottom
in the large-bore competition. Well,
sort of. I’d sold my good friend and
neighbor Dave DeMoulpied a 1959
Colt Coltsman chambered in .300
Holland & Holland and helped him
develop the load. We used Reloder 22
powder, a Federal GM215M primer,
and the Swift Scirocco 180-grain
bullet. When we tried out the load on
the range the day before the shoot,
Dave printed a 1.2-inch group at 200
yards, aiming through a 9x hunting
scope. I had serious competition, as I
knew my buddy Mark “Pig Newton”

242 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

Nazi was bringing his Remington 700
Police Special in .308 Winchester
and, between those two rifles, it
would take everything I had to remain
competitive. Mark’s .308, with its bull
barrel, would routinely print less than
/4-MOA. My .300 Winchester was
good, but the field was tough.

In the end, neighbor Dave put me out
of the running, when I admittedly pulled
the third shot of my group and, so, it
came down to the other two rifles for the
championship. Pig Newton beat Dave,
but it took the micrometer to prove it.
Either way, there was something to be
said for both the guns, especially the
accuracy of the .300 H&H in a hunting-
grade rifle. I didn’t win the large-bore
trophy, but I’d helped a friend develop
a crazy-accurate hunting load! To me,
we’d all won—but I never should have
sold that rifle.

GO BIG OR GO HOME

At the meeting of our local chapter
of SCI, in Oneonta, New York, some¬
thing happened to me that never, ever
happens. I won a raffle. A raffle for a
rifle! Well, at least money toward any
rifle I wanted. I had a .22-250 Rem¬
ington, .308 Winchester, .300 Win¬
chester Magnum, and a .375 Holland
& Holland. So what to order.

I thought long and hard about a
.25-06 Remington, but my love for
big-bore rifles ultimately won out and
I ordered a Winchester Model 70 in
.416 Remington Magnum. I had aspi¬
rations to hunt Cape buffalo, a beast
affectionately known as the Black
Death. These brutal bovines have a
reputation for soaking up copious
amounts of lead, so, as a hunter, you
want to hit them hard. I really don’t
believe there’s a rifle that is too large

The champions of the Handloader’s Syndicate, left to right, Mark “Pig-Newton” Nazi, large-bore champ,
and yours truly, the smallbore champ.

SUCCESS STORIES 243

(Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

for these buffalo, so long as you can
put the bullet in the vitals. Shot place¬
ment is paramount—they’re just not
gonna die from an “okay” shot.

I’d spent some time loading the
.458 Winchester with this quest in
mind, but its case capacity and recoil

were two factors I wasn’t a huge fan
of, so the .416 Remington kind of
leapt out at me. It burns about 75
percent of the powder the .416 Rigby
does, while delivering identical ballis¬
tics. The parent case is the .375 H&H,
which is readily available in a pinch,

244 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

“Cocoa,” the author’s
beloved Winchester
Model 70in.416
Remington Magnum. The
Leupold QR mounts allow
quick access to the iron
sights, if they are needed.

and the Winchester 70 platform is well
known to me. I saw no point in load¬
ing anything less than the 400-grain
bullets, as these made the .416’s
reputation, plus, I already had a .375
H&H for throwing 300-grain bullets
at other game. As I was going to use

this rifle for buffalo, I chose a low-
powered 1.5-5x20mm Leupold VXIII
with a heavy duplex and mounted it
in Leupold QR mounts. These mounts
would easily give me access to the
rifle’s iron sights, and the scope has
enough magnification to make longer

SUCCESS STORIES 245

(Photos this page courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

The author and his .416 Remington at the bench.

shots, if necessary. The initial setup
complete, it was now off to the reload¬
ing bench to start load development.

I chose a trio of bullets to use, the
Hornady 400-grain round-nosed Inter¬
lock for practice and smaller animals,
and a combination of 400-grain Swift

iOt)

* *41 £> /?6 K
400
i o

2,40 S f'p

A-Frames and Hornady round-nosed
solids for the buffalo. Some nickel-plat¬
ed Remington cases were handed over
by the UPS man, and I reached for the
Federal 215 primers and Grumpy Pant’s
favorite powder, IMR4064.

The first loading through the brand
new barrel printed
three-shot groups
of just over two
inches, which,
as GP indicated,
would have been
well suited for

A one-inch group
from the author’s .416
Remington, not too
shabby from a 5x scope
and a big-bore rifle.

246 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

A nice Chobe bushbuck taken with a 400-grain Swift a-Frame, in Zambia.

buffalo hunting, as shots on them are
rarely over 100 yards and the buffalo’s
vitals very large. But why would I ever
settle for that level of accuracy, when
I had the capability of loading the am¬
munition to give better results?

Back at the bench, I changed the
amount of IMR4064 in the case by
one grain, up to an even 78.0 grains,
which was near maximum, according
to the reloading manuals. Four groups
of three shots verified that I had no
signs of excessive pressure, and the
accuracy was much better. Group size
averaged 0.9-inch, which, with a 5x
scope, is just fine by me.

The chronograph displayed 2,405
fps, on par with factory ammunition.

I was initially skeptical about the
Leupold QR mounts and the claim of
being able to remove the scope from

the rifle and reinstall it without losing
zero. Well, turns out they work and
work well. In fact, they work so well,
they sparked an idea.

I’ve had scopes fail on a remote
hunt before. When that happens, more
often than not, you’re out of business.
Now, on this rifle, destined for Africa,
I could remove the scope if it broke
and use the iron sights, but I thought
that purchasing an extra set of rings
and a spare scope, one already zeroed
and carried in my day pack, would
save any aggravation. So, in addition
to the 1.5-5x, I picked up a fixed 2.5x
Leupold and zeroed it to use as my
spare. This has worked perfectly, and
though I haven’t had any issues with
the main scope, I’m ready if there’s
a problem. The ammunition, too,
worked perfect in Africa, and, in fact,

SUCCESS STORIES 247

(Author Photo)

The author with a large
Zambian Cape buffalo
bull, taken with his .416
Remington Magnum.

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group &
J.D. Fielding Photography)

248 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

this rifle has accompanied me across
the pond twice, on safaris to Tanzania
and Zambia. It accounted for my first
Cape buffalo, a 36-inch-wide bull with
a huge body and well-worn and hard¬
ened bosses. The bull required only
one shot, one placed right through the
heart, but my PH insisted I “pay the
insurance” with a second A-Frame.
Both bullets were recovered against
the offside skin and retained more than
90 percent of their initial weight. This
same ammunition also allowed me to
take a rare Lichtenstein’s hartebeest,
in Tanzania’s Selous Reserve, at 300
yards across a large pan of water.

Once again, the laminated drop chart
card came into play and allowed me
to take a longer than normal shot with
the big gun.

This is, without a doubt, my favor¬
ite safari rifle, especially for truly big
game, but I’ve also used it on warthog,
bushbuck, puku (another rarity), and
on a wild hog here in the States. The
other nice feature of this rifle is that
all three of the bullets I choose to load
in it will print to very nearly the same
point of impact. I really couldn’t be
happier with this rifle!

MAMA NEEDS A RIFLE

After our safari to Zambia, my
darling wife, Suzie, decided she
wanted to start to hunt and shoot with
me. Absolutely! I couldn’t wait to
spend time afield with my best friend,
even though it cost me almost half my
hunting gear.

Now, I’m almost six feet tall, but
my dear bride is only all of three
inches more than five feet, so most of
my rifles and shotguns don’t suit her

well. I needed to get her a rifle that
was better stocked to her dimensions.
While at the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
annual outdoor sportsmen’s show, I had
a visit and a chat with the folks from
Savage Arms. They told me about a
new development in their lineup, the
Savage Lady Hunter. It has the same
great barreled action that Savage has
always produced, but with a scaled
down instead of cut down stock. This
is a huge advantage for Suzie Q, as she
has strong yet small hands and requires
a much shorter length of pull than any
of my big-game rifles can offer her.

When I saw the Lady Hunter, I
knew what Mrs. Massaro was going to
receive for her birthday, but I debated
long and hard about the choice of
calibers. I knew that it would have to
be relatively universal, as Mama had
indicated she didn’t want a bunch of
different rifles (silly girl), but also that
she had aspirations to hunt both the
game of North America and the Afri¬
can antelopes, especially sable. I fig¬
ured a .30-caliber would fit the bill, but
had to choose between .308 Winchester
and the venerable .30-06 Springfield.
Since the rifle would already be scaled
down and feature a shorter barrel,

I reasoned that the .308 Winchester
would give a lighter overall package
(due to a shorter receiver), and still
perform well in the shorter tube. I also
had plenty of component brass and
some good loads developed for my
own .308, so the shorter cartridge was
the way to go.

When the rifle arrived, I was very
pleased with the walnut stock; nice
grain, a decent wood-to-metal fit, and
that awesome Savage barrel. Mama

SUCCESS STORIES 249

Suzie Q at the bench with her Savage Lady Hunter in .308 Winchester.

250 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

picked out a Bushnell 3-9x scope that
was lying around, so I mounted it on
her rifle and we were off to the range.
The barrel break-in stage showed
that accuracy was not going to be
an issue, as the loads I’d developed
for GP’s rifle worked well in Suzie’s,
giving her about 1 MOA. Indeed, my
wife shot her rifle well right out of the
gate and she soon used her fetchin’
iron to take a big, black, wild boar
in Florida, with a 165-grain Nosier
Partition and an appropriate load of
IMR4064. Then something happened
that really showed the true accuracy
potential of this rig.

My pal Ronnie Hardy, owner of
Hardy’s Custom Calls and an avid
hunter, called me to develop him a
load for his T/C Icon in .308 Win¬
chester. He had asked for a flat¬
shooting 150-grain bullet to reach out

and touch a large Canadian whitetail. I
decided to use Suzie’s rifle to develop
the load. I trimmed up some Hor-
nady Match brass, weighed out some
150-grain Swift Sciroccos, grabbed
some Federal Gold Medal Large Rifle
Match primers, and cobbled them
together with (yet again) IMR4064.

I thought the first three-shot group
was a fluke, as I watched the single hole
in the target just get wider— 0.3-inch
wide from center to center, to be precise.

“Gimme three more. That had to be
a coincidence.”

The second group printed 0.35-
inch, the third the same. Wow, just
wow. The chronograph gave an
average of 2,865 fps, something that
would certainly give the trajectory
Ronnie was looking for. I made him
a couple boxes and sent them out. A
phone call later that week confirmed

A very good group from the Suzie Massaro’s .308. You really can’t ask for more than that from a

hunting rifle. (Photos both pages courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

SUCCESS STORIES 251

Suzie’s chosen load for her pet rifle is a .308-inch, 150-grain Swift Scirocco II loaded in Lapua cases.

that his rifle had liked them as much
as Suzie’s had. He’s since taken many
deer with that gun and load.

It’s wonderful to introduce new
shooters to the sport, and, if you have
plans of taking your significant other
or children to the range, you can make
some handloads that are on the lighter
end of the spectrum, so that harsh re¬
coil won’t create bad shooting habits.

I made some of these reduced-velocity
loads for Suzie, so she could get com¬
fortably acquainted with the way her
rifle shot, the feel of the trigger, and
use of the safety. It wasn’t long until
she had developed a good shooting
technique, and those skills stuck with
her when we switched to the full-
house loads for hunting big game.

A BIG THIRTY WITH AN
ATTITUDE PROBLEM

The late 1990s saw the release
of a case based on a blown out .404

Jeffrey, one with near parallel sides
and necked down to hold .308-inch
diameter bullets. That round was the
.300 Remington Ultra Magnum. It
was among the first cases to have the
“magnum” moniker, without having
the raised belt of brass associated with
the .375 Holland & Holland Mag¬
num. This round is capable of driving
a 180-grain bullet at velocities past
3,300 fps, which gives it a very flat
trajectory, and it produces more than
4,000 ft-lbs of energy at the muzzle.

My friend Pieter had a Remington
Alaskan Wilderness Rifle chambered
for this cartridge, topping the gun with
a Swarovski high-magnification rifle
scope with the TDS reticle, a very
useful setup for long-range shoot¬
ing. Pieter is a very good shot and an
experienced hunter who knows his
rifle very well. This big stick liked fac¬
tory ammunition using the 180-grain
Nosier Partition. However, with the

252 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

(Photo courtesy Massaro Media Group & J.D. Fielding Photography)

great ammo crunch of 2013, factory
ammunition was simply unavailable at
any price. Pieter had tried several dif¬
ferent lots of handloaded ammunition,
but none of them came close to giving
the accuracy his factory loads had
given him. He gave me a call to see if
I could solve the problem.

I had developed the load that my
dad uses for his .300 RUM, so I had a
good idea where to start. I first made
Pete a couple of loads on the lower
end of the spectrum, to check for
pressure signs. We had none, and the
accuracy started to tighten up, but we
weren’t where we wanted to be yet.
Pete uses this rifle for long-range elk
hunting out west, so we had to have
accuracy somewhere below MOA, to
be sure and he could make clean hits
on distant targets.

As we worked through the loads,
barrel heat was a bit of an issue, thanks
to the bullets moving at this velocity,
so we kept the groups to three shots.
We were getting close to the accuracy
we wanted with the 180-grain Swift
Scirocco II and Reloder 25 powder
backed by a Federal 215 Large Rifle
Magnum primer, that combination
yielding around 1 MOA. Still, I knew
we could do better, so I pulled out
the old neck-sizing die, resizing the
necks only on Pete’s once-fired brass.
That did the trick. Three shot groups
hovered around Vg-inch, with velocities
around 3,350 fps. Pieter is now once
again a happy shooter, knowing he has
access to a constant supply of ammuni¬
tion his rifle likes.

Sometimes neck sizing can make
the difference when you’re looking
for that last bit of accuracy. But the

Cody Wolfe, Pieter’s son, with his trophy
Colorado elk, taken with handloaded 180-grain
Swift Scirocco II shot from his dad’s .300
Remington Ultra Magnum.

practice, as I’ve discussed previously,
is reserved for bolt-action rifles only,
as they alone have the mechanical
advantage of being able to close the
chamber on a cartridge with dimen¬
sions that are slightly larger than
SAAMI specifications.

NEIGHBOR DAVE REVIVES A CLASSIC

This is a brief tale of a 1959 Colt
Coltsman .300 Holland & Holland
Magnum bolt-action rifle that has
been passed around. I purchased it
from Col. Le Frogg and didn’t have
an awful lot of time to develop a good
load for it, so it sat in the cabinet.
When my neighbor Dave offered
to purchase the old girl from me, I
agreed, knowing it would “stay in the
family.” Well, not only did neighbor
Dave have her cleaned up and the
stock bedded, he cooked up a load that
is most impressive in a hunting rifle.

SUCCESS STORIES 253

(Photo courtesy Pieter Wolfe)

Using Reloder 22, Federal Large
Rifle Magnum primers, and a
180-grain Swift Scirocco II, this gun
printed a 1.2-inch three-shot group
at 200 yards, during the previously
mentioned “Handloaders Syndicate”
competition. The 3-9x glass this rifle
wears is on the light side for target
shooting, but this gun is a shooter.

Velocities from this rifle are about
2,900 fps, which makes for a very flat¬
shooting, hard-hitting combination. A
bit faster than the .30-06, yet with re¬
coil that is very comfortable to manage
from the bench, it makes a wonderful
all-around caliber. The long, sloping
shoulder of this classic case makes for
very smooth feeding, and even though
the rifle is more than a half-century
old, it is with Dave’s care and load¬
ing that it has truly come into its own.
Dave uses it in the hunting fields with
great effect, and I hope it sees many
days afield. Old is not dead!

MARTY’S FAVORITE .270 LOAD

I have a customer who has a
particularly finicky .270 Winchester.
This gun didn’t perform well with any
factory ammunition, and the first trial
handloads didn’t help, either.

I don’t shoot a .270 Winchester
often, but my pal Marty Groppi does,
and it’s one of his favorites. So, I
asked for some classified information:
his pet handload recipe.

Marty obliged. The load uses a
Sierra 130-grain spitzer and IMR4895,
and while I’ve promised not to divulge
the particulars, this load solved the
problem for my customer. The for¬
merly finicky rifle now prints three-
shot groups just over MOA, and the
client is very happy. Point is, keeping
diligent records can help others when
they have a problem rifle. Marty had
spent the necessary time at the bench
and found a load that worked well in
four or five different .270 Winchesters,
and that load proved to be a winner in
my client’s gun, as well.

* * *

From old guns to new, accuracy
you can live with to accuracy you can
be proud of, and problem guns turned
to faithful treasures, these are the sto¬
ries that handloading makes possible.
Get involved, experiment, get good
behind your rifle or handgun as only
handloading can make you. After all,
isn’t that kind of success what we all
want with our guns?

254 Gun Digest Shooter's Guide to Reloading

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RELOAD YOUR OWN!

Drawing from decades of experience, author
Philip Massaro provides detailed instructions to
help you successfully reload your own rifle and
pistol ammunition.

Inside this practical guide:

Step-by-step instructions describe how to reload
rifle and pistol ammunition for recreational shooting,
competition and hunting

Hundreds of photos support detailed
descriptive instructions

Hints and tips help you avoid common mistakes

With the experience and guidance shared in this book,
target shooters and hunters alike can enjoy the benefits
of hand-tuned ammunition.

[Phil’s] writing is lively and fresh, bringing both
feeling and humor to a subject that has traditionally
been dealt with in staid, textbook
fashion. Because of that, because of
Phil, you will not only learn from this
book, you will enjoy it.”

- Craig Boddington

74962"01

jlip 7

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip P. Massaro is the President
of Massaro Ballistic Laboratories,
LLC, a custom ammunition company
comfortably nestled in between the
Hudson River and Catskill Mountains
of upstate New York. He has been
handloading ammunition for more
than 20 years.

US$19.99
T0032 (CAN $21.99)

ISBN-13: 978-1-4402-3988-5
ISBN-10: 1-4402-3988-6